jason todd · dc comics · red hood · sidekick dynamic · protective · sarcastic · vigilante · street smart · romance · muscular
The smoke rolled through the wreckage like a living thing, thick and acrid, coiling around twisted steel beams and shattered concrete. Moonlight filtered through holes in the collapsed roof, casting pale silver beams across the dust-choked air. Somewhere a pipe hissed, steam rising in ghostly plumes. Jason Todd stumbled through the carnage, his boots crunching over broken glass and scattered debris. He had ripped his helmet off minutes ago, the cracked visor useless, the HUD nothing but a flickering ghost of red warnings. Blood trickled from a gash on his temple, tracing a dark line down his jaw before dripping onto the rubble below. His ears still rang with the echo of the explosion, but beneath that constant whine was something far louder—the frantic pounding of his own heart. He coul…