Chapter 1
Jason didn’t really think about it until much later when he texted the group chat with the Avengers instead of the one he had with the bats when he wanted backup.
Hey any of you down to help me with a case just outside of Gotham? Probably only need one or two of you
Bucky: I’m in
Clint: :( i can’t srry
Sam: something tells me you don’t need someone with wings to help you out
Natasha : I’ll go too. When and where?
He ignored Tony just texting him a few emojis, and confirmed Bucky and Natasha as backup. He texted back the coordinates quickly and asked them to meet him there the next evening. He was definitely satisfied with the two of them as backup, especially since he’d been wanting to get to know Bucky better. The man didn’t contribute much to the group chat, and Jason got the impression that Bucky wasn’t the type to make friends easily, which was understandable with what he knew about the Winter Soldier. By Steve’s expression whenever he interacted with the guy, he felt like he was already doing a great job at becoming friends.
There was also the fact that Jason knew if anyone on the Avengers team could kick his ass, it’d probably be Bucky. It was a bit unnerving when he was around someone more dangerous than him, but at the same time it was comforting knowing he’d be safe with his backup. Since they were going to be operating outside of Gotham, Jason also didn’t need to worry about keeping things non lethal. His new friends were good for that.
Some B list villain crime lord who thought he was the next Black Mask, Tony Giovanni (or Scorpio, which was very dumb) was slowly on the rise in Gotham, mostly because he was smart enough to do a lot of his meetings outside of Gotham’s underworld while his neighborhoods suffered for it. It made it harder to track him down, but luckily for him, Giovanni was new to Gotham and apparently didn’t know enough about who Red Hood was outside of just a mercenary who once controlled the drug trade. That level of ignorant stupidity got him an invite to one of his meetings, where Jason suspected he would be offered a deal to help him and his gang. That or they would try to kill him, it really was a toss up either way.
Showing up to the club the meeting took place about twenty minutes after Natasha and Bucky found their positions and handed over his two pistols when the nervous security guards asked for his weapons. They apparently decided they were the only weapons he had on him when he had about a dozen concealed, which was just fine with Jason as he was escorted to a back room. It looked about what he expected it would, with Giovanni confidently sitting at the head of a table with a few other C list fuckers or their representatives who were suddenly very on edge as he strided into the room and took a seat towards the back.
“What is he doing here,” one of the representatives for the Escabedo Cartel hissed, eyeing Jason with wide eyes.
“Relax, gentlemen,” Giovanni said, seeming very assured that Jason wasn’t about to kill him. “I invited him. Welcome, Red Hood,” he greeted.
“Scorpio,” Jason responded with a nod, managing not to sound too condescending at the pretentious title. He just thought naming yourself after your zodiac sign was a little ridiculous. “What do you want?”
“We’ll get to that,” Giovanni responded, which was unfortunate. It meant he had to sit through the entire meeting, listening boredly as he detailed parts of his grand plan, the others nervously reporting how their jobs or areas were doing, shooting Jason looks as they talked. It was little over a half hour later before the topic of his purpose of being at the meeting circled back. “Hood, I hear you’ve tangled with Batman.”
“I’ve fought him before,” Jason responded, understanding now what Giovanni wanted him to do. “He’s hard to kill.”
“Yet you’re not in Blackgate or Arkham.”
Jason scoffed. “I’m good enough to evade capture. It helps that he stopped sending his birds after me once I shot the little one.” It was technically true, though they’ve all moved past that by now. It was just what Giovanni needed to hear apparently, if the sudden self-satisfied grin had anything to say for it.
“Rumor is you used to have a deal with some of Gotham’s drug dealers, and you managed to protect them from both Black Mask and the Bat. That’s what I want from you.”
“Why would I help you? I got 40% of all of their earnings for that.” He didn’t think Natasha and Bucky were the kind of people to judge him for any of this, and he really fuckin hoped he was right. He knew they both also had some bloody and violent pasts, which is one of the reasons he felt comfortable with them listening in. “I also don’t much appreciate being someone’s lackey. Give me a different offer or I’m walking out.” He made sure to put some more edge into his tone, making most of the people in the room even more nervous. An unhappy Red Hood never went well for any of their gangs in Gotham.
Giovanni’s face tightened as he thought about that. They both knew where he was right now he wouldn’t be able to give him nearly as much money as he made before for longer than a couple months. Even if he were rich, as he clearly was, that kind of shit wouldn’t be good for business. “Okay, how about this instead. Assassinate Black Mask for two million.” Okay, so Jason hadn’t been expecting that. He had to give the guy credit; he had big aspirations if he wanted to take everything over from Black Mask.
Unfortunately, as much as he wanted Sionis dead, he couldn’t kill any big players in Gotham without the bats knowing, and he very much liked not being driven out of the city. Two million wasn’t nearly enough to warrant that kind of high profile hit either. “You really should have done better research,” Jason said after pretending to consider it for a moment, smirking at the confusion the statement garnered. With a sharp whistle, a bullet came from somewhere high and took Giovanni out with a headshot, and the room exploded into motion. Jason started engaging the rest of them, Natasha appearing out of nowhere to help, all while Bucky sniped them from across the street. The gunfire attracted more guards who were completely unprepared for the deadly efficiency of the three of them working together, and the whole thing only took about five minutes. Silently, Jason and Natasha slipped out of the building and into the car Bucky pulled up in with excellent timing.
He drove them into New York, and Jason seemed to surprise both of them when he laughed at something Bucky angrily said in Russian under his breath when someone cut them off on the freeway. “You speak Russian?” Natasha asked interestedly.
“Yeah,” he answered with a shrug, raising an eyebrow when she smiled at him.
“How many other languages do you speak?” Bucky asked curiously.
“Other than English, I know Russian, Spanish, Arabic, German, Italian, and ASL,” he answered easily.
“Impressive,” Natasha commented, which was sorta awesome. “Where’d you learn those?”
“I just pick up languages pretty easily. I traveled around the world for a few years when I came back, and playing dumb American who didn’t understand anyone was pretty fun.” By pretty fun, he meant it was easier to find out his trainers’ dirty secrets and kill them for it. By their matching knowing looks, he figured it was fairly obvious to people like them. “Thanks for your help tonight, by the way. I probably could have handled it alone, but I wasn’t quite sure what I was walking into.”
“Anytime,” Bucky replied with a half shrug, Natasha nodding along.
“Wanna break into Clint’s place in Brooklyn and steal his booze?” she asked suddenly, which actually sounded really fuckin good. “He’ll be back sometime tonight or tomorrow.”
He was once again a bit surprised when they wanted to hang out with him outside of work, which he supposed he shouldn’t be. He’d been texting the Avengers fairly regularly since he met them all the other week, and he’d been to the tower one time since then when he needed a place to lay low for a night, but these people were essentially a different version of the Justice League, and he didn’t think he could just hang out with any of them. Jason was very confident in his abilities, but he didn’t consider himself on their same level. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to be friends with them, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to turn them down.
“I’m down,” Jason answered, matching their smiles.