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mortiferumsomnum · 2 years

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Soup Kitchens and Runaway Ghosts (Part 2)

Part 1 could be read here! Part 3 could be read here!

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thank you for liking my other post 👉👈

***

It was night outside, with the owls hooting and bats flying under the light of the moon.

Jason had a hand on Dani’s shoulder as they sat in the (illegal) Doctor’s kitchen. Although she was putting on a brave face, she was trembling and pulling at the ends of her sweater. Her eyes never left the open door to the room Danny was getting medical help from. They couldn’t see his body, but they could see the Doctor walking to and fro’ the bed Danny was placed on.

“Hey,” Jason whispered, soothingly, hoping it’s the same comforting way Dick does.

Slowly, her gaze turns to him. Her chin was trembling, and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. Shit. What would Dick do? Jason didn’t think this far in the comforting thing.

So, he tugged the little girl closer, hugging her with his arm. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered to her. “He’s in good hands.”

She sniffed, and huffed through the sob that tore through her lips. “I... I don’t know how I could keep Danny safe...”

Jason glanced to her, but she was looking back to the open door. ‘What do you mean?’ he wanted to ask. ‘It’s not your job to take care of him,’ he wanted to say.

Instead, he whispered, “You did your best.” Because she did. She did her best to get food from his soup kitchen for both her and Danny, not at all stopping to eat in the cafeteria, only thinking to have her containers filled. She stole from drug stores. She tried bandaging Danny even if she didn’t know how to do it properly. She took care of him with everything she could.

(A passing memory of his mom, Catherine, flashes in his mind.)

That only made her chin tremble more, which prompted Jason to hug her closer.

Finally, the Doctor stepped out.

***

- The Doctor tells Dani that Danny’s okay now, and that he’ll be telling the Red Hood everything that needs to be done to keep up with the treatment. Then, he tells Dani that she could go and see him. She didn’t need to be told twice and ran into the room.

- The Doctor closes the door, then grunted at the Red Hood. “Look, man. I know I said I would help you for anything medical-related, but I think I need to draw the line at freaky supernatural shit. His blood literally had green where the plasma was supposed to be.”

- Jason removed the safety of his gun.

- The Doctor was unfazed. “I’m not going to tell anyone, but men in white managing to track these kids down because they’re, what, ghosts???? Which is weird because that kid’s heart was beating????? And he’s alive??? In fact, the green stuff does a better job than regular human plasma, it’s unreal, man. Since it replaced the plasma the kid was supposed to HAVE, I’m calling it green plasma, for simplicity, yeah.”

- Jason’s not worried about that. “Tell me about the kid,” he said. “How is he, moving forward?”

- The Doctor’s face pinched. “It’s... not bad... anymore...”

- “Anymore?”

- “Look, when you brought the kid in, it’s exactly as you told me: Vivisection wounds, 3rd degree burns from laser guns, infection...”

- The Red Hood was getting impatient with the way he was loosely fidgeting with his gun.

- “Bottom line is, once everything was cleaned and properly stitched, he started... healing? On his own?? I took blood samples, and the green plasma has something to do with it. You know how plasma literally moves the blood cells? It seems to enhance their functions as well. The enhanced white blood cells were fighting against the infection that was also enhanced by the plasma. Once the infection was removed, it was smooth sailing for his body. Now, all the kid needs is rest, food and water.”

- Jason hummed. “I’m burning this house down.” There was a chance that the kids would be leaving some kind of bio-signature in this place, and the Doctor was one of the most competent people he knew after Leslie. He was also really easy to intimidate, but despite the fear, he does his job well. Works well under pressure, like what he wrote in his resume. “Change your clothes and pack your bags, Doc. I’m going to lend you one of my safehouses.”

- The Doctor was quick to nod his head. “I assume that you’re destroying the blood samples as well?”

- Jason pointed his gun towards him. “Did you take a sample?”

- The Doctor was fast to shake his head. “Like I said, I want nothing to do with the supernatural, man. I’m already knees deep in crime, and I really don’t want to be making contracts with beings more demonic than you are.”

- Jason huffed, putting his gun away. “The demon is my brother.” The Doctor squeaked. “After changing, leave your clothes here. It’s burning with the rest of the house.”

- “You got it, man,” said the Doctor, leaving the room with a brisk pace.

- Jason then went in where Danny and Dani were, and it seems like the kid was finally sleeping peacefully on the bed he was in. He was changed into a loose pajama that the Doctor probably had, and was tucked under a clean, beige blanket. Just as the Doctor said, he was looking a hundred times better.

- Dani was smiling. Once she saw him, she jumped out of her seat and ran up to him, hugging his middle while laughing. “He’s okay!” she said. “Thank you thank you thank you so much!!”

- Jason chuckled, patting her head. “No problem, kid.” Even if the Doctor did most of the job.

- “Uh, yes problem?” The Doctor came into the room, clothes changed and face white. “There’s... there’s people... white suits... outside... secret police?? Government agents?? Oh god...”

- Unconsciously, Jason tugged Dani closer.

- Then, Jason took out a domino mask from his leather jacket and an extra rebreather, throwing it to the Doctor. “Put that on, Doc. We can’t have them knowing your face when we make our escape.”

- The Doctor scrambled to put it on.

- Jason turned to Dani. “Get Danny and turn invisible like you did before.”

- “Uh, I can turn all of us invisible and get us to the car if you guys hold on to me,” she said.

- Jason blinked beneath his Red Hood helmet. “You... could do that?”

- Dani blushed in embarrassment while nodding. “I was panicking when they first showed up, okay?! I could fly us to the car as fast as I can, but they’ll still be able to track us...”

- Jason nodded. He turned to Danny, who was now being carried by the Doctor. “I got ‘im,” he whispered, eyes wide in fear and knees trembling. Jason really doesn’t want him carrying Danny since Dani did just fine earlier, but he also didn’t know how much concentration she needs to bring all of them out.

- Jason went into the kitchen and opened the gas tank connected to the stove. Then, he and the Doctor walked close to Dani.

- She grabbed onto the back of their shirts, and turned them invisible. Thankfully, he could make out the outline of Dani floating them in the room.

- Also, the Doctor was screaming like a banshee. A panicking banshee.

- “WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP?!?!?” Dani yelled.

- “I’M TRYING!!!”

- “Would my gun work through the invisibility?”

- “We’re not intangible yet, so... I think so?”

- That shut the Doctor up.

- The smell of gas was getting strong.

- “Let’s get outta here,” said Dani. And tuned them intangible, and---- holy shit. Jason couldn’t feel his insides... or his outsides... or anything from his body. He felt... nothing. Not even floaty or light. It was as if he didn’t exist. They fazed through so many walls until they made it out of the house.

- But just as they made it out, the men in white’s gadget started beeping like crazy again.

- “They’re close!”

- “Find them!”

- Thank God the Doctor was quiet.

- Jason watched as they were floated into the car. Jason lost his intangibility and invisibility first, being dropped into the driver’s seat. The Doctor was dropped in the backseat with Danny, and Dani sat in the passenger’s.

- “Put your seatbelt on.”

- Dani looked incredulously at him.

- The Doctor did as Jason told, wrapping one around Danny as well as he laid in the back with them.

- “They’re over there!!” one of the men in white yelled.

- Some blasters were shooting at them now, and the Doctor rightfully screamed again.

- Jason started the car, then took out his gun and shot at one of the blasters.

- The blaster was about to go off, and its shot was redirected to the window of the house.

BOOM!

- While the men in white ducked for cover, away from the explosion, Jason drove away, increasing his speed.

- But no matter how fast he was going, trying to get away, the men in white were chasing after them again in their vans, installed blasters getting out and ready to shoot them again. God, they’re annoying.

- “I... I could blast them too!”

- There’s too many of them. 5 vans, plowing through the trees with their comically giant blasters. One was moving forward.

- He turned to Dani. “Try to make the one in front turn around just as they’re about to launch a blast. It’ll hit the other vans.”

- Dani nodded and fazed through the top of the car, hands glowing green. Just as she left, Jason could see form the rearview mirror how Dani transforms. Although the dark of the night made it unclear in a few places, he could clearly see her hair turning white and clothes changing. He couldn’t see her face as she was faced towards their pursuers.

- Her hands then let out a long green blast towards the van. Just as Jason said, the van flipped, it’s blasters hitting the other two vans behind it. Dani then sent another blast to the other vans, but it was unsuccessful, learning immediately from the first van that was attacked.

- Dani came back into the Hoodmobile (Jason still hates the name, but there really isn’t other name to call it), sitting in the passenger seat and buckling up once more. “What do we do now?”

- They were heading towards Brown Bridge, just past that is China Town, into GCPD territory. If he could just get into the abandoned sections, he’ll be able to get into Red Robin’s patrol route. The techy Robin would be able to fry their devices just as well as Oracle.

- Only a few Gothamites brave travelling at night, but the streets are mostly empty, thankfully. No civilian will be involved in this crazy chase.

- “We’re heading into one of my brothers’ territories,” he said.

- The Doctor squeaked. “The Demon one???”

- “No,” said Jason.

- “You have a Demon for a brother?” Dani asked, eyes looking excited.

- “He might as well be one,” said Jason, increasing his speed once more.

- He passed by a GCPD patrol car, but the driver didn’t chase after him after seeing two vans with massive weapons of mass destruction driving past him. Like the good, corrupt officer he was, he deleted the footage of what he had just seen from his police cameras attached to his person and car.

- Finally, Jason was driving through the abandoned warehouse district of Chinatown. Then, Jason activated his comms. “Red Hood to Red Robin, where the fuck are you?”

- “Red Robin to Red Hood, fuck you, too.”

- “Listen kid, there are some shitheads in white chasing after me. Have you heard from O?”

- “We tried hacking into their systems once they fixed it. No progress. Need me to fry their systems again?”

- “As much as possible. Where’s your nearest safehouse? One that could cover the biological-traces of someone.”

- “Including the post-mortem traces of someone?”

- “Fuck, Replacement, you got something like that? Should I be worried? How many bodies are you hiding??”

- “Hardy-har-har, Hood,” said Red Robin. “They upgraded their coding to avoid being hacked and frying their servers again. Can you hold out for 5 minutes?”

- “3 minutes, Double-R. They brought more of their buddies-- SHIT!!” Jason swerved the car to avoid hitting a pole, entering a warehouse and breaking through the old, wooden walls. “Make it 1 minute! They’re fucking multiplying!”

- “Oh shit! Hood! Look out!” the Doctor screamed, pointing to the biggest blaster Jason’s ever seen.

- Fucking hell. Jason turned to Dani, who was looking at the blaster with wide eyes and a panicked look on her face. “I... I can..” She was panicking, trying to think up of things to do to make the situation better, but Jason is NOT going to let her to anything. She did enough. It’s Jason’s job to take care of her and her brother/cousin right now. (And the Doctor, but that man is the least of his priorities. Sorry, Doc.)

- “I’m almost done, Hood!”

- A stray blast hit the already, severely dented hood of Jason’s car, knocking it off to show its engine. Shitshitshit... He unbuckled his seatbelt, to which Dani and the Doctor followed. ”Red! You done yet?!” he yelled into the comms.

- Red Robin didn’t answer.

- Instead, Jason watched as the vans exploded.

- Jason leaned towards Dani, covering her view before she could see the guts and limbs fly.

- “Shit... I didn’t mean to do that...” Red Robin said on the comms, voice trembling. “I didn’t...”

- Turning to Dani, her face was frozen. “They... they’re...”

- “Hey, hey, hey... it’s okay... it’s alright,” whispered Jason, taking her into his arms. He thought he managed to hide her from the deaths.

- She shook her head. “I... I could feel their souls leaving... I could feel... they’re scared... others are angry... They’re...”

- Well, shit.

- “Let’s get somewhere safe, yeah?” said Jason.

- Dani only nodded, most likely numb and dissociating. Great. Trauma. Okay. Fantastic. Fuck.

- “Red Robin, you still there?” asked Jason.

- “I... yeah. I’m here.”

- Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Okay, Jason. You need to be the voice of reason for a whole bunch of traumatized kids right now. Okay.

- “Double R? Where’s the safehouse and how far is it?” Jason asked.

- “It’s in Upper West Side, right along Schnapp Avenue. There’s an abandoned bookstore there. It’s right above there. The walls are covered with everything you need to cover you.”

- “Okay, we’ll meet up with you there.”

- “I... I’m going, too?”

- Jason wanted to sigh, run a hand down his face, or even punch one of the dead guys that were chasing after them. But he answered, “Yeah, kid. You have any chocolate in there?”

- “Agent A stocks up my safehouses himself.”

- “Good. I really do have everything I need there, then. I’m also bringing along some guests, ‘cause I’m not the only one these bastards are after.”

- Red Robin was quiet.

- “Kids, one who looks younger than the Demon Brat, and the other looks younger than you... and some Doctor that got involved in all this.”

- “Shit...” Red Robin whispered. “Did they...”

- “See? No.” Jason’s not going to tell him that Dani felt the deaths, tho. “I’ll be there in 15 minutes, Red.”

- It was quiet.

- “Red?”

- “Y-yeah... okay. I’ll... I’ll be there, Hood.” Click. Red Robin was no longer on the comms.

- Well... Shit.

*****

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