Chapter 29: Jason Todd

Harlem, New York

He hadn’t gone far before he heard a scream. He quickly darted toward the noise, his boas drone going on overwatch as he appeared inside the dim alley. 

Harlem was a bastion of crime and inept law enforcement and leadership. Mariah Dillard, a councilwoman, had made sure that the crime was unanswered and police were on the take and unresponsive. It was long overdue for change. This was the perfect neighborhood to create Wayne Enterprises. 

‘Was this how Harlem supposed to be? He questioned. Knowing this world, the universe isn’t what one would call normal. In his past life, this was all a comic created by many people, but this had inevitably become his standard. 

He easily dodged the mugger's untrained jab; he grabbed the offending man's arm and turned, sending him over his shoulder in a picturesque judo slam. 

He had no grand idea of stopping the criminal underbelly. If not for The Hand's overbearing ways and transgressions against him, wrongs that couldn’t be forgiven, the two wouldn’t have had such a bad relationship. In all honesty, he didn’t want to die again; knowing what would be coming and what he had at his fingertips, he dared not prepare for the inevitable wars this planet would face. 

He had long understood that Daredevil takedown of Kingpin was a decision he had been led into by The Hand. Kingpin was notoriously headstrong and wouldn’t have folded as his Uncles and Aunts had done. 

He had read the comics and seen too many things not to understand that darkness had its places in existence; no, he would only taper off its edges, allowing the people who wanted to remain in the day to be at peace and those who existed in the night to understand that death is a possibility.

Therefore, when the inevitable occurs, someone would have to be installed to fill in the void. The problem was that he had no idea who could fill those shoes. Kingpin? Sure. The only problem was the man would betray him sooner than later, and he would be back at square one. 

His thoughts continued, the muggers unworthy of more focus than what he gave them. Before the partner could run, realizing who had happened by on their little come-up, Cole had already brought his hand up, gripping the Bat-grapple; the gun silently fired and quickly ate up the distance, impacting the man in his back as he unleashed enough electricity that would cause unconsciousness.

‘No,’ he continued inwardly, ‘this was the absence of The Defenders, notably Harlem's staunch protector Luke Cage.’

“Thank you, thank you,” the woman cried out, causing him to shift attention from the second down mugger. The woman was helping her date to his feet. The man had been beaten senseless. He intervened because the man hadn’t backed down and would’ve come out on top if the cowards hadn’t jumped him. 

The man was bruised and battered but had made eye contact with Cole. Cole didn’t recognize the man, but the way he looked, he had more than a little more fight life. He dipped his head. 

He watched the couple run off, the lady almost carrying her date from the dark alley. He walked to the concussed robber and emptied his pockets. 

He hadn’t found anything that pointed him to any of the known gangs. Just an opportunistic idiot, he thought before bringing his boot down on the man's trachea. 

He resummoned the Bat-Grapple. The Bat Grapple was used by Batman to swing across the city or to capture criminals. The grapple gun could even send an electric current through the wire if Batman wanted. An explosive could also be added to the claws of the grapple, and when the claw hit an object, the object would explode.

He ascended to a higher vantage point, propelled by the grappling gun, landing squarely on his feet. In all honesty, it felt good helping them out; he probably lied to himself when his reasoning to help the couple was based on the male defending himself and his female counterpart. In actuality, it felt good to do a good deed. 

“With great power power comes great responsibility.” He said jokingly into the cold winter night. 

System message: Common Reprobate Executed. Harlems Criminal Community relationship: Feared. Rewards: +Villain alignment. $3,000. 

He read the prompt before closing it. He would get those a lot; they hardly came with anything worthwhile, so he rarely took time to read them, but he didn’t let it go unnoticed that the system rewarded him for all acts across the spectrum; murder had its perks he assumed, he couldn't tell which side of the spectrum garnered more rewards. 

He hadn’t expected a relationship update, but it wasn’t too much of a surprise. He was optimistic that his deeds earlier had traveled around; it wasn’t normal for cities to go unprotected by heroes he knew most didn’t travel outside their backyards per se. 

The Justice League's whole conception was because the signets had wanted to pool resources on a global scale and unionized heroes. And the man that he hadn’t killed would soon talk to him about what had occurred. 

If his club were to work, he would need the neighborhood he occupied safe. That was simple logic. His power was based on his bank account; the more money he could generate, the more gear he could purchase. 

There was also the fact that If one business could survive, other developers would invest in the community; more money meant more social programs and a more prominent spotlight being placed in the city. 

He was also aware that bringing more developers meant the possibility of gentrification. He would cement Wayne Enterprises in Harlem, and with his tech and innovation, he would grow to be a power in the broader world. 

Cole had placed his Red Hood costume back in his inventory, removed Clark Kent’s glasses, and put the enchanted glasses on his face; the lenses, the ones that shocked Ms. Hammers, already upgraded his vision, which was at the peak of human ability, now he had an almost Raptor like vision, able to see at such depth that he had to dial back on the setting.

He smiled. He was enjoying the transformation. He had turned into Todd. Admittedly, he didn’t feel different. He needed more enchanted items. He had the Kinetic Hammer, which wasn’t enchanted but sufficiently advanced that it might as well have been, from his implanted memories, an item shrouded in mystery, as even the Justice League premiere members had assumed the material of its creation to be alien make. Steele had been closed-mouthed on the technology. It could have been proprietary reasons; knowing Batman, he would have tried to copy the tech or at least ward against it.

The Nth-promethium katana also could be considered magical, or would that be cosmic? He knew that even more enchanted metals existed; Vibranium and Adamantium were more abundant of the metals.

Once he used his glasses, he didn’t need to keep them on. But, to turn back, he had to put them back on. 

H.U.D ( Heads-up-display) program that he had worked into the fully unlocked versions of the bionic lenses had already synced with the bat-redoubt computers, unlocking a lot more processing power and facial recognition systems that the Dark Knight had access to.

‘This place is turning into Gotham.’ He concluded after going through the data. He knew full well what his words meant. Cole hadn’t delved into Todd’s memories, but he had them at his beckoning, so his estimation wasn’t off at all. 

Cole leaped from building to building, staying above ground to not be spotted by passersby. 

One of his monitors prompt had pinged. On his phone was a Facebook live of a group of men who had discovered Thors Hammer; each had tried multiple times to pick the hammer up. 

Banishing Thor to Earth wasn’t a random choice, as Odin knew what Thor needed to learn. Thor’s most significant flaws were his ego and arrogance. Hence, the Asgardian prince had to learn a big lesson on humility, and the best place to do so was Midgard.

Thor appearing was just another percussor. Hulk and the others would soon follow if they hadn’t already occurred. He knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. information wouldn’t leak so quickly. 

Significant crimes were happening across the city. A bank was about to be robbed. The team was drilling from underneath, going through the complicated sewer system. 

Spider-Man had just engaged Max Dillion in Times Square, their battle nearing a conclusion. He had stopped to watch the fight. It played out like the movie. 

He was even surprised to see the actor Jamie Fox hadn't been his appearance but the titular comic book version. The comic book version of any character was a headache since the characters usually were more powerful.

He had made it to Paradise nightclub. The outside was packed, security heavy, checking every patron that entered. He knew it wasn’t for the partygoer's protection but for the Stokes gangs. 

Before he could leap down, his boas had pinged him, but he hadn’t time to check what the alert was before Angelica had called.

His H.U.D. beeped, signaling a call. He accepted Angel appearing before him, and she looked around, amazed at the technology. 

Hard-light technology or at least the basis of it, even though the light had an almost physical weight, it was limited, but he was close. 

“Fire-star,” he said, brow raised in anticipation.

“I wasn’t sure if you would answer, and wow! This technology is impressive.” She said, not realizing she was looking at him unmasked; at least, that was what she would expect. 

“How did you even come up with it,” she whirled around, seeing me standing impassively. 

“Sorry,” she coughed into her hand.

“What can I help you with, Firestar?” He asked, using her moniker. 

“So, I’ve been using the drones you allocated me, and once I was notified you were online….”

I tuned her out, waiting for her point to matter for the interruption. I had given her permission to use the computer and hadn’t hidden anything from her other than my name and identity, which I will rectify later.

But I had forgotten that my projects were visible to her on the closed network. I mentally shrugged. I could trust her since she was under contract, and I couldn’t imagine the young woman exploiting my trust in her. 

I refocused as her words drew my interest. I raised my hand, halting her hard-light avatar. 

“Are you saying you have been using my equipment to spy on the superheroes and happened to find out the identities of two people we were aware of who are openly fighting The Hand?”

She nodded, jumping up and down, her features fixed in worry. I lowered my head, hand on my chin. 

Only if the girl would come out and do something other than be his personal Barbara Gordon. He had called to bring Bullseye closer because he needed more people; unfortunately, he couldn’t be in multiple places simultaneously. 

Fire-star grew impatient and laid out her suggestion, but I already knew what she wanted based on the conversation. 

“Will you do it? They need your help.” She pleaded. I nodded, waving my hand, ending the call and scattering her hard-light avatar. 

He was already handling the The Hand. He would look at the video and data later to see who was giving him a hand. 

He had his drones in the sky, silently hovering above Paradise, the boas mapping the places, sending him data streams. He had audio transmissions and floor plans, and he even had the safe codes secured in the manager's office.