Chapter 4
The next day when Jason woke up, the sun was already high up. Too be more clear, it was somewhat five-ish in the afternoon. An unhealthy sleeprythm is one of the downsides of the whole 'protect-the-ones-that-can't-protect-themselves-gig', but hey, it's a small price to pay for the greater good.
Jason got up from the the surprisingly comfortable couch were he spent the rest of his night. Helmet, letherjacked, boots and the rest of his gear was spread carelessly across the floor. Jason finaly figured out how to work the glove thing he 'borrowed' yesterday, he managed to bring it into kind of a stealth mode and now it looked like a normal watch. The teen stretched a little and let his back pop. Oh what would he give for a cub of coffee and some of Alfreds pancakes. But no he has to be in fucking New York. But ok, he just had to call B or Oracle and he would practically be home. Maybe he would even drop by at the mansion for some of those sweet, sweet cookies of Alfred. Of course only when no one other than the old butler was around. Because everything else would be really weird right?
The teen put on his suit, minus the masks and the jacket. Time for going home. He pulled out the communicator and tried to contact the cave first. It went to voicemail imideately. Ok that was strange but maybe Bruce had something important to do at Wayne Enterprise, Dickhead was probably in Blüdhaven and Replacement and Demon spawn were probably at school. Alfred could have been grocery shopping or something. Next he tried Oracle, the red head ALWAYS picks up her phone, but again he was send to voicemail imideately. Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, fuckfuckfuckfuck FUCK! Why the Fuck is nobody answering the damn phone!?
Ok something here is completely wrong! Yesterday he woke up in the wrong city, there are some weird dudes who call themselves aperantely Avengers or something like that and he couldn't reach one of the Bats. Jason steadied his breath wich had become a lot more rapid without him noticing it. He had to keep a clear head if he wanted to find out what's going on and how he would get back home. Maybe 'breakfast' was a good idea. Jason felt like he didn't eat in ages, considering that the last thing that he ate were the two chilli dogs yesterday, that wasn't that far away from the truth.
Around 20 minutes later the teen found himself inside of a cozy looking diner. It looked like it was straight out of the 70s, even the uniforms of the waitresses and waiters were designs int he same scheme. A woman with curly blond hair, suposedly in her late forties, came to his booth to take his order.
"What can I get you today, hun?", she asked a little bit to cheerful if you asked Jason. He looked over the menu one last time before he answered: "I'd like to have the, uh, waffles with strawberry's and chocolate sauce, and a cub of coffee, please"
"Sure thing. It'll only take a minute.", before he could reply something she was already gone, probably taking the order of the next costumer.
Looking out of the window, his mind started to drift away again, to be exact, to the dream he had the last night. He, Replacement and and Dickhead were positioned on the roof of an old warehouse at Gotham harbour. Big 'ol Bats and the Demon were already inside. Everything seemed quiet, maybe their intel was wrong and there wasn't a big weapon shipment coming in today? Jason already wanted to tell them that there was no point in waiting any longer, when he suddenly heared the sound of boots landing on the roof behind them. Before he could turn around to see who was there, he felt a heavy boot connecting with his spine and was sent flying trough the skylight. Moments before his body could have hit the hard concrete floor of the warehouse, he woke up.
Was this really just a dream? It felt more like a memory to Jason. Could it be that this 'memory' was from the last mission with the rest of the Bats? If so, then the hart impact with the ground would explain his memorylos. Also he didn't know how long he was unconscious, so maybe the injuries of the fall were already healed. But then again, why haven't the others come looking for him? Did they think he was dead again? That would at least explain somethings.
He wanted to dig deeper into his memory, when the waitress from before came again, this time with his order.
"Here ya go, hun. Can I get you anything else?", she hummed.
"Actually yes. Could I get todays newspaper? That would be really great.", he answered.
The lady just nodded and left to get the newspaper. A few moments later she returned with it and handed it to Jason. He flashed a small smile and inspected the front page.
"Ok lets see...", he mumbled.
First he looked at the date. It was only two days after the mission, that means he was probably unconscious for one night. Ok so his former theory that his injuries were already healed couldn't been true. Ok then there was only one other option, one of the other must have caught him before the impact. When that was true, then now he knew even less then before. Why the fuck was he unconscious and what the hell happened on the mission? And how the hell did he end up in New-fuckin-York?
Jason decided to look at the articles and not just stare at the date for an eternity. Right in the middle of the front page, in big bolt, black letters was the headline. It read: Explosion near Stark Tower last night! Is there a new Villian in Town? Read more on page 6!
The young vigilante followed the instructions and skipped to page six. Lets see what the newspaper says about the Red Hood...
Lasst night, around midnight a security camera filmed a man who aperantely jumped out of the Avengers Tower, into the on the other street side situated warehouse. He appeared to wear a red Helmet and and a brown jacket. Shortly after the Avengers Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow were spotted to enter said warehouse. After about fifteen twenty minutes the man escaped trough the roof and blew the building up. Thanks to Iron Man none of the heroes were harmed. Captain Rogers said in an interview: "He is well armed and should be considert extremely dangerous. If you spot him, contact the authorities and get. to a safe place. Do NOT engage." The criminal is still on the run, but the police and the Avengers are working on catching him and bringing him to justice.
'Huh', Hood thought there would be more information about him. Maybe they didn't know who he was after all. Not that he would complain or anything, but he had to admit he at least hoped that they would recognise him or give him a new lame nickname like "Red Helmet", "Crime Biker", or something like that. It actually didn't surprise him that no one knew that he was called the Red Hood. Not many people outside of Gotham and her sister city knew him. Yeah with the Outlaws he operates outside of his hometown, but never long enough as that someone would remember him as the Red Hood that once ruled over Gothams underworld and is now know as one of that Bats.
Jason finished his meal, paid and left for his safe house. Maybe he could go on patrol? He knew that this wasn't his city and that this so called 'Avengers' where still looking for him, but he had nothing better to do. Also, maybe he could show the habitats of New York so that he wasn't a breath for them. In retroperspectiv it wasn't the best idea to blow up a building. If he had thought a little longer he would have realised that there were at least three other ways out of the situation, but no, he had to be as impulsive as always and do the fist and stupidest thing that came to his mind. If Bruce found out that he blew a building up without a real reason, he would get another of his lectures about 'being to reckless and endangering of civilians'.
God he fucked up.