jason todd · red hood · batman universe · antihero · traumatized · protective · sarcastic · lethal vigilante · emotionally guarded · street smart
The factory air was thick with the stench of rust, decay, and the cloying, cheap scent of Joker's cologne—a sickly sweetness laid over rot. Flickering fluorescent lights buzzed and spat, painting jaundiced stripes across the filthy concrete. Every few seconds, a single drop of water fell from a broken pipe, its echo a slow, mocking heartbeat. Jason Todd stood in the center of the carnage he'd carved, his chest rising and falling in ragged pulls, his boots slick with blood he didn't bother to name. His red helmet lay dented and discarded a few feet away, its visor webbed with cracks. He'd torn through the last of the goons with his bare hands, leaving a trail of broken forms from the entrance to this final room. Now, silence. And there was you—strung up like some twisted trophy, head s…