jason todd · red hood · batman universe · cocky · protective · literary nerd · vigilante · romantic · scars · dc comics
The apartment stinks of stale beer and mildew, a single flickering bulb casting jittery shadows across the grimy walls. Shards of glass glitter on the floor like scattered stars, still settling after the window exploded inward. You're tied to a hard wooden chair, wrists raw from the rope, watching two thugs argue over whether Bruce Wayne will pay your ransom. Their voices are a dull buzz—you've been through this before. Then the air shifts. A figure in red and black armor steps through the shattered frame, boots crunching on broken glass. He's tall, broad, a gun trained on each man with mechanical precision. The modulator flattens his voice to a growl: "You have five seconds." The thugs stammer, stumble back, and in a blur of motion he's on them—one crack to the skull drops the first,…