ANTARCTIC CIRCLE - JUNE EVENT

[metamods]

ANTARCTIC CIRCLE

Monsters are nothing new to this world. While they were thought to be nothing more than legend in the pre-confluence days, the first modern kaijuu attack was recorded in 1954.

Everything people knew to be true was challanged time and time again, but it has been decades since a threat showed itself. The Guild System has kept things manageable, peaceful even. It has afforded metahumans a sense of peace and a place of belonging in a world that once viewed them as disruptive and dangerous.

And so when the reports begin trickling in about a threat manifesting at the South Pole, the senior most members of both guilds head out under cover of night. They're certain they can deal with this quickly and quietly, without placing the burden on the new metas who never asked to be brought to this world.

But when they return at dawn, battered, broken and near dead - the decision is pulled from their hands. The usual theatrics of the guilds are pulled aside as the government officials muscle their way in, taking control of the Alliance command center. Within less than an hour the message is splashed across every screen, interrupting whatever people may have been doing prior.

EMERGENCY GODFALL PROTOCOLS ARE ACTIVE.

ALL ABLE BODIED METAHUMANS ARE EXPECTED TO REPORT INAT ALLIANCE HQ REGARDLESS OF ALLEGIANCE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS A COSMIC LEVEL THREAT.

WITHOUT INTERVENTION IT WILL BEGIN AT T-MINUS 72 HOURS.

STRATEGY MEETING—

You’ll find no one is forcing you to attend this strategy meeting… but most of the metahumans gathered here don’t appear to have any real power to speak of. Many of them are scared civilians. One can levitate rocks, another sneezes fire. All the major guild members are in critical condition, but most are expected to pull through.

They won’t say who isn’t.

The only person left in any kind of condition to help is Chaos Gate, who holds out her arm to display the reason why: one of the Sunset Falls blossoms has bonded to her. And though she’s singed and had been exposed to risky levels of cosmic radiation, the flower itself is fine. The intel the guild leaders brought back is enough to form a plan.

The entity is from another dimension, as is the flower. And so it stands to reason that people from other dimensions would be likewise immune. Even if they aren’t, upgrading existing anti-kaijuu weaponry is their best shot at stopping the threat in its tracks.

Any metahuman who is technologically inclined is called in to lend their skills to adapting the existing anti-kaijuu technology. This is your chance to shine if you’re not much of a fighter. You have twenty-four hours to get these machines ready for combat.

They give you the rundown of the technology that powers the robots. Multiple minds working in sync, meta-energies syncing up to replicate your existing power set on a massive scale. However, as they're powered by metahuman energy, doing this for an extended period of time will be incredibly draining, so it’s recommended for each robot to have a dedicated team of pilots to trade duties. At minimum, two people are required to operate each robot.

Additionally, memory-sharing is a known side-effect of this technology. It’s strongly recommended that no two pilots during active combat be from the same world - better still if you’re complete strangers - as its possible to completely lose yourself in these memories.

You can use this time to find partners or teams - and maybe stake a claim on the coolest-looking robot, if you feel like it.

MOVE OUT —

At dawn the following day, you’re sent off. Though the atmosphere is one of hope, Chaos Gate drops her usually flippant smile to lay down the facts: you may not come back alive.

But if you don’t go? Then everyone dies. The seers couldn’t say for sure whether you’ll succeed, but those that glimpsed futures where you never left at all made it clear what that led to.

Sync up with your fellow pilots and deploy yourselves, or jump into the med bot following behind. Feel the brush of another mind against yours and the power that comes from controlling an enormous steel giant. Take this time to experiment with the powers and abilities in the real robot, not the simulation you only had a few hours to train in.

ENGAGE —

There are five kaijuu in total. Their bodies roughly shaped like a tortoise, a dragon, a phoenix, and a tiger - with the final one an unknowable mass of flesh and tentacle, protected behind a barrier. Each of them measure roughly eight hundred feet, and are leaving massive damage in their wake. Scattered across the corners of the globe, they’re moving towards the South Pole where the largest beast lays in wait. The closer they are to this destination when you engage them, the more reality seems to be break and bend around them. Space and time are fragile here; there may be some odd effects, things like gravity and time rolling backwards. These creatures bleed cosmic radiation, so it’s recommended that you try to kill them as quickly and bloodlessly as possible. This may be difficult as while they’re in possession of breath attacks, they’re more keen to engage in hand-to-had combat.

Each of them is also spawning smaller copies of themselves, which seem to be moving towards the coastlines - towards major cities, specifically.

Those who believe themselves to be better suited to battling the monster directly can engage the kaijuu outside of their jaegers. But anyone exposed to their irradiated blood will catch a doubtless disorienting glimpse of infinity, and anyone who gets wounded is likely to fall into the ocean and be lost in the chaos. Do this at your own risk.

Those who aren’t piloting can also join medical or maintenance crews, which will be teleported out to any robot crews that require assistance.

Mercifully, once the four celestial beasts are slain - their ringleader seems to lose its power. The barrier that has been protecting it has fallen. And with no defenses of its own, it goes down easily. Reality returns to normal. And exhausted but victorious, you give the signal to be teleported back home.

You can sign up to strike a final blow here.

AFTERMATH—

It’s a brutal fight. Maybe not all of you made it back. Once the threat is clear, recovery teams are deployed to try to reclaim and revive any bodies lost in the surf.

Back at guild HQ, you’re welcomed back as heroes. The civilians are eager to know their new saviors - identifying yourself as such is sure to thrust you into the spotlight. Much of the fight has been live-streamed and so your great bravery or cowardice is public knowledge.

Deeper inside headquarters, blue-skinned representatives from the underwater nation of ATLANTIS are shouting at suited lawyers. The kaijuu blood in the water has made their home largely uninhabitable, and the combat has destroyed much of it. Are they going to get the same rescue that the surface world did? You’re welcome to volunteer to visit the rubble that was once their Antarctic settlement and rescue the seal-like selkies from the bloodied water.

IN SUMMARY...

• Giant monsters have appeared. Their mere presence is warping reality. Smaller clones of them are heading towards coastal cities.


• The heroes of this world are no match for it. The government has chosen to enact the Godfall Protocols Act, meaning all metahumans are expected to report in to stop a potential apocalypse. Not everyone has to go and pilot the robot, others can stay to defend the cities from any potential dangers.


• Player characters will be hopping in giant robots designed for two or more pilots. They can read each other's minds to operate in perfect sync. An unintended side-effect is memory sharing. You can get lost in these memories. Any action taken in memory will be replicated by the giant robot.


• After the defeat of these monsters, everyone is brought back to Guild HQ for a heroes welcome. You can sign up for your character delivering a final blow here.


• If you want your character to protest the Godfall Protocols and/or to try to disrupt anything going on, please report your actions here.
• The Atlantean people are begging for help as the robots have destroyed their Arctic cities and the blood in the water has harmed their selkie civilians. Player characters can go search for these selkies. Please report selkie rescues here.

Comments

[robintohood]

[Jason ignores Speedball's newest swipe at him as he also looks over the controls. Fot a few minutes he's silent. This is a lot. He feels out of his depth. At least he's not only one though, from the way Speedball's talking to himself.

The last time Jason felt this out of place was years ago when he was a Robin. Diana and Clark were fighting Mongul while Bruce was trapped by Black Mercy. That time was scary too as malicious aliens were not usually what he fights. Still, he had to keep going. Someone needed him.

In that sense, this current situation is similar. An unfamiliar environment, an inability to back out, and hell. There are even malicious aliens again.

Jason slowly breathes in and out before he talks]

Seems like we just have to do it. They said these lock on to what we do together, right?

[an_extra_hour]

[You can do this. You can do tech. You messed with nuclear launch mechanisms once. So what if he had time to obsessively plan it ahead of time as part of a vendetta caused by the deepest hatred he's ever known?]

Okay. Okay. We can figure it out, right?

By our powers combined, we are one competent driver.

[He unclips the helmet they gave him from his belt and wills away the goggles that were still on his head. Before they entirely disappear in a few bubbles of light he puts the helmet on. The colored see-through material helps obscure his eyes all the same.]

[He steps completely into the station he's supposed to stand at and feels things start to link up. The techs setting this up come over the comm and tell Jason to do the same, after which they'll start the countdown to the connection.]

Now's the last chance to share any embarrassing childhood nicknames on your own terms.

[The jokes are covering up the fact that having to share his brain with a stranger is a waking nightmare that only extreme obligation and trauma is shoving him into doing.]

[robintohood]

[Jason removes his helmet and reveals the domino mask he wears underneath. He then steps up to his station and begins to be linked up.

Goddamn he really hates this. It's no one's business to go diving into his mind]

I tried to be a theater kid once. Does that count?

[It's a dry response to what he knows is a joke. It's an attempt to cover his fears. This is not what he imagined his second death could be]

[an_extra_hour]

[The technicians start a countdown.]

Of course you were a theater kid: you're dramatic enough to wear a mask under your mask.

[Don't think he was going to let that one slip by without note.]

[robintohood]

[Jason rolls his eyes and for a brief moment he's more annoyed than fearful]

It has its uses, Speedbubble.

[an_extra_hour]

Is one of those uses that you can dramatically whip off the helmet to show off your best angle? Because if that's the case, someone should probably tell you that you don't have o -

[Annnnd contact.]

[The feeling is completely unnatural, a blend of sensations that don't go together. A cold plunge into hot water.]

[The anxiety that'll hit Jason is potent, refined, not idle worry or something uncertain. It is the kind of fear derived of knowing the worst that can happen and knowing exactly how bad - and how extremely possible - it is. There is no misplaced naivete or heroic optimism, just a resignation to work past the fear with the desperate hope everything will work out.]

[The techs tell them to take some time to adjust but Robbie barely hears it.]

[robintohood]

[The shock from the mind plunge would knock Jason off of his feet if it were physically possible. Except it feels like he's been transported to somewhere else.

Robbie will feel that Jason's anxiety is similar to his own. Jason's been in enough life-threatening situations to know how serious this battle will be. It's why he's anxious.

However, there's a particular thought floating prominent around. Is this how his second death is going to be? Will he at least die fighting standing up this time instead of alone and helpless again? A sense of resignation is also around. An early death, even an early second death, is what he gets for continuing to be a vigilante. There's no choice but to push through]

cw: extreme self-harm implied

[an_extra_hour]

[Defeatism.]

[He recognizes it. The helpless feelings, the resignation towards death. Even if he recognizes them for different reasons.]

[He looks over at Jason and with a flash there is...something else there, where Robbie should be. He's still visible, like the image is overlaid and not entirely opaque, but something is over top.]

[It's the image of a hideous costume, all irregular stitching and bondage-like straps and random spikes sticking in various directions. Two vents in the chest piece seem to be oozing a slow stream of blood (whose?), though from what it's impossible to tell. If it's not his own body, the only place it could maybe be coming from is maybe from his mouth, seeping down the neck of the suit. The helmet seems to have no visible eyeholes, just spikes lining it in two rows.]

[It look like the costume of a Gotham rogue, fresh from Arkham, one of the real pieces of work, like the ones whose crimes involve human skin or something.]

I don't know if this is going to work.

[Robbie is oblivious to what Jason is seeing.]

[robintohood]

[Jason keeps staring at Robbie. The nightmarish suit looks like a walking iron maiden. He would fit right in along with Arkham's most infamous patients. And the blood... It can't be real. Jason hasn't forgotten where they really are but it's getting harder to discern where to go]

What the hell is going on? Your suit...

[an_extra_hour]

[He looks down at himself, at his hands, but still doesn't see it.]

[He also doesn't notice how his voice has changed as well, a more ragged one lightly echoing in an overlay of his normal speaking voice. The other voice is ragged and raw, the kind of voice a villain would use to intimidate their enemies. Or maybe it's just his real voice and the milder and more human-sounding one is the affected one, an impression of a real boy.]

[He starts to recoil slightly in alarm, worried over what Jason is seeing. There's an injection of feelings of alarm straight to Jason's brain, worry over being exposed, idle thoughts he can't entirely hold back, whispers of He knows and you should've known better than to think you could hide it.]

[He is definitely hiding something.]

What? What about my suit?

[The overlay of the suit steps away from where Robbie physically is and tries to retreat in awkward limping movements back deeper into his memories, tries to hide itself again in his mind. Jason will have to choose to follow to learn more, will have to choose to do what they were trained not to.]

[Robbie's eyes are wide now.]

What do you see? [He shakes his head.] This - this was a bad idea! We're probably incompatible or something. We should have them unhook us.

[If Jason's going to chase the rabbit to find out more, he'll have to do it before Robbie pulls the plug.]

[robintohood]

[Jason also feels Robbie being upset at being exposed. In return, a mess of negative feelings bleeds towards Robbie. Is Speedball the facade and this bloody figure is his real self? Is the blond man actually a villain and Jason was stupid enough to fall for a trap again? The figure's harsh voice certainly doesn't help.

No. Jason can't fall for this again. He can't ignore this. He needs to know before he gets himself killed again. Jason tries to go after the red figure]

[an_extra_hour]

Stop!

[He can feel the rush of negative feeling, enough to get the vaguest sense this is personal, there's a sense of "not again." The push deeper happens before he can pull the plug.]

[He feels like he's crashing back wards into glass or the hard surface of water, sinking down into the depths as the memory takes over. He's here but trapped, unable to push the memory to anything else.]

It isn't - this isn't -

[He can't say "it isn't what it looks like" because it looks awful and is awful.]

CW: Implied brutality towards a teenager

[robintohood]

Isn't what?! Who or what was that spiky thing just now?

[Robbie will feel Jason's alarm and his temper starting to rise. Is this about to be a fight on two fronts? The mental and the physical?

As Jason keeps running, an overlay appears. The figure is smaller and is in a more colorful costume. He looks like he's in his mid-teens? But he's in a more sorry state too. He's barefoot. The suit and cape are ripped and bloodied in various spots. There are also streams of blood coming from his temples. Robbie doesn't get a look at his face though as Jason keeps going]

cw: brief mention of suicide + more self-harm.

[an_extra_hour]

Wait, what? Who -

[What is the whole deal with the beat up teenager?]

[But there's no time, because he's running right into the memory and Robbie is suddenly crushed by the weight of it.]

[There is only Penance now.]

[He's deploying from a fancy airship onto a city street with a group of people that look fairly supervillainish. One of them is a massive alien monstrosity with too many teeth - the alternate version of Venom, a version far more hostile than the one currently in residence in the world outside. Then there's the Swordsman, an amoral aristocrat who only cares about having his sister cloned. Moonstone, a menacing and manipulative former psychiatrist that used to talk patients into suicide for giggles. She's the team leader.]

[Hiding off in the shadows is Bullseye, an nearly-uncontrollable psychopathic murderer, who can kill someone with just a thumb tack.]

[The only two on the team that have softer perceptions around them are Songbird (another new recruit to the world outside), whose costume looks more superheroic, and Radioactive Man, who's wearing a radiation suit but looks more menacing than he actually is. He and Songbird are generally well-meaning and not here of their free will. Chen's on the team at the mercy of the his government; China wants him to be here. Songbird's fitted with a nanochain, an internal shock collar, controlling her. They both try to cause as little harm as possible to whoever they take in, nice clean takedowns even if they have to be a little rough. The others are fine with death or maiming.]

[Robbie doesn't have a nanochain, he's chosen to be here, to do this. He knows it's bad for the people they bring in, but what's more important is that it's bad for himself.]

[They are the Thunderbolts, they take their orders from Norman Osborn a "former" supervillain known for throwing an innocent young woman off a bridge, and they're on the hunt for a hero. It's entirely legal but entirely wrong. Penance knows that's what their target is, a hero, someone who tries to help people. He doesn't care. These are heroes that refused to be good little boys and girls and sign up with the government. They're the ones thumbing their nose at accountability, insulting the memory of 612 dead, including 60 dead children, because they're just like he, Penance, was.]

[They deserve to be punished just like Penance does.]

[At Moonstone's instruction Penance blows up a chunk of city street, injuring Jack Flag. It's fortunately been emptied of civilians or Penance at least wouldn't have done it. This leaves Flag vulnerable for Bullseye to stab him in the spine in a nearby building.]

[Penance watches Flag, in agony, get loaded on a stretcher on the T-wagon. He feels not even a twinge of guilt. He feels absolutely nothing, like the whole world is washed out, empty, and gray.]

[He feels nothing emotionally, at least. Physically, he's in agony, skin pricked by hundreds of points of pain. The source of his power. The source of blood from the blood vents. The only thing he deserves.]

[His penance.]

["Walking iron maiden" is more right than Jason knew. It really is something a Gotham rogue would do, this disturbing mix of punishment and masochism.]

[Present-day Robbie looks out from the suit's eyes, aware again.]

[He lets out a roar.]

GET! OUT!

[There is a blast of power - and will - knocking Jason right out of his half of their connected brains, but the gesture accidentally drags Robbie to go tumbling with him right into the other half. His mental projection changes back to present day Robbie who looks enraged, horrified, humiliated, and betrayed.]

CW: More descriptions of a battered teenager

[robintohood]

[Robbie's memory is sensory overload for Jason. The emotional numbness of watching a criminal in agony is very familiar to him. He doesn't need to imagine it because he's experienced it hundreds of times at this point. However, the physical pain all over his body is overwhelming. The last time he felt this hurt was...

Then Robbie blasts Jason out of the memory. Jason glares at him. So Speedball really is a villain and he might be trapped with him. No. He can't get trapped again.

Meanwhile, the overlay comes back and now Robbie has a much better look of the teenager. The boy's face is bruised all over. There are specks of blood around his lips like had been coughing out blood. His domino mask is tattered like the rest of his costume and unlike Jason's mask, the white lenses of the boy's mask are missing. The boy's eyes are green but the left eye is also bloodshot, bruised and nearly swollen shut. He's also handcuffed]

Who are you?

[Jason's growl is overlaid by the higher voice of a younger man.]

[an_extra_hour]

[That must be what Jason had seen, something over top the mental projection of him. The Penance suit?]

[He wonders why he sees him as a hurt teenager in turn - and who hurt him - but there's no time for that.]

[Because now he has to do damage control. Because what sane and reasonable person would see what Jason just did and not be alarmed?]

[Robbie's ire and hurt and betrayal fades. He can't even be entirely angry with him. If their roles were reversed and he saw the Penance suit, of course he'd be suspicious, dig in, try to figure out if Jason was some supervillain lunatic hiding it from everyone.]

[Of course it looks absolutely bizarre. And of course his time on the the Thunderbolts looks like him being awful - because he was. Provided they beat the giant monsters and the world doesn't end, it's probably only a matter of time before Jason tells everyone. ]

[Especially if he was... hurt? By someone?]

[Especially if he's...maybe scared?]

I already told you. Speedball. I'm Speedball.

[For a moment, he mentally laments how his name sounds like a villain's idea of a made up stupid superhero name. Ugh, it probably sounds fake. The thought accidentally projects and possibly makes it sound like he's regretting his made up hero identity isn't more convincing.]

My real name is Robbie Baldwin. Which I may as well tell you, because -

[Because everyone back home knows what I am, comes across far too loud.]

Because I did some bad things. [Tears well in his projection's eyes.] But I'm not - one of them I never intended - and I'm trying to make up for it, for all of it, even though I know I never can. I'm not going to hurt anyone here. I'm not going to hurt you.

[robintohood]

[If the setting was back in the "real" world, Jason would still be highly skeptical. But with both of them in the shared mindspace, Jason feels Robbie's fear, shame, and regret. But still, what happened just now is a lot to take in. What else is he supposed to think after seeing Robbie actively hunting down someone just because he didn't agree with some law? Plus, he didn't sense any guilt during the act]

What happened to the people you caught? Did they ever get to go back home?

[Is Robbie's shame and guilt only after his actions caught up with him? Jason has seen too many criminals express regret at being caught, not at the crime itself.

All of these feelings and questions are projected onto Robbie without Jason saying it]

[an_extra_hour]

The prison got busted open and the law also got struck down.

And if it went wrong in a - a permanent way, it was usually because they let Bullseye off his leash.

I tried to bring people in alive. Not unhurt, but at least alive.

[He holds out his hands in a placating way.]

Look, man, we don't have time for this okay? We need to get out of here, get this hookup cut off. I'll answer your questions after this whole situation is over. Alright?

Any questions you have. I'll tell you everything.

CW: Off-screen gore mentioned in video link

[robintohood]

[Jason scoffs. Right. They had other crap to deal with first. The sooner they got this over with, the better it was for everyone. Still, this isn't how Jason would like to work with an apparent villain. He'd rather they follow his rules and under his control. Just like what he did in Gotham.

Before Jason and Robbie could realize it, they're in this memory (Up to 2:05).

Jason's lurking up on a catwalk in the dark as he watches Gotham's top drug dealers gather for the meeting. He's armed with an AK-47 and there's a bloodied duffel bag besides his feet. He watches and listens as the dealers are suspicious and speculating who called them all together. Their conversation reinforces Jason's intel about how no one's been happy about being under Black Mask's control.

Once one of the dealers grows impatient and is about to leave, Jason announces his presence in a commanding voice. Time to establish who's got power. When the dealers whip out their guns, Jason calmly fires his AK-47 around and near the dealers. He had anticipated their reactions and knew they would cower when he shows his firepower. They already had given to Black Mask. Giving in to him would be easy. He just has to show who's got more power.

He snarls a command at them again but it's just for intimidation. Internally, he's still calm. Things were still going according to plan. Jason then presents his terms to the thugs. They're simple enough and they'll be allowed to continue their businesses for the most part. Any transactions involving kids though means he'll execute the dealers who were involved. Gotham has too many traumatized kids and broken homes as it is. He doesn't want any kid to go through what he did.

Then one of the dealers questions him. Jason had anticipated that as well. Without another word, he tosses the bloodied duffel bag over the railing. It lands on the table for the dealers to take a look. As soon as the bag is opened and the dealers step back in horror, Jason knows he's got them now. Good. They should be scared. There are going to be some new rules in Gotham. He's going to take the reins better than Bruce ever could. Crime can't be stopped but it can be controlled.

Jason coldly finishes his terms to the drug dealers. Then he ends the meeting by firing his gun again. A little more fear to make sure they don't forget who's the new crime lord.

Unlike with Robbie's memory, Jason's memory simply ends. For Jason's part, there's no rage or shame at all for what he's done, only anger that his memories and feelings are being exposed without his consent]

[an_extra_hour]

Wait wait wait, hold up!

You were getting all righteously indignant with me when this whole time you've been the class president of the local drug dealer student council?!

I mean it's nice you've got a "no kids" rule, but to hell with all the people that get addicted as adults, am I right?

[Screw you, dude! And here he was feeling so small and awful when Jason is clearly just some petty little drug lord.]

Oh, well done, like for half a second I almost bought it, but you were just scoping out the competition, weren't you. Hoping there are no other supervillains around that might challenge your next power grab.

[robintohood]

[God, they really don't have time for this. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to pair them up? And here he was thinking maybe Robbie isn't as much of a goody two-shoes hero as he thought. Is he seriously about to get another scolding about the value of not killing sociopaths?

Jason makes no effort to hide his indignation about all of this]

Believe it or not there's more than one way to combat criminals. Throwing them in jail and hoping they actually stay in there doesn't always work.

cw: child death, suicidal ideation

[an_extra_hour]

So you just leave them out doing their drug lord thing, but make sure they follow a rule or two. Yeah, that won't ever bite any innocent people in the ass!

[He throws up his hands.]

But you're right, we need to end this. Just...get re-partnered to go fight the end of the world and never talk to each other again. Fair deal.

["The end of the world." They're the wrong words to say because it's too easy a jump to a moment. A specific one.]

[A memory flashes again.]

[Robbie - no helmet, no goggles, the guy Jason bantered with at the book store the other day! - sitting in what looks very obviously like a personal office in a charity. There are bulletin boards on the walls with volunteer pictures and framed news clippings.]

[Robbie, an older woman, and an older bald man are watching a crisis on the news looking horrified. The woman is Miriam Sharpe, the founder of the charity Damian's Gift. Leonard, the man, is one of the volunteer managers. Robbie has just been rescued from a bad situation, taken back into the office to hide until everyone goes home. He was attacked by other volunteers.]

[There are villains being given magic hammers all around the world, attacking places at many times their usual power levels, causing widespread terror.]

["My God," Robbie says.]

["You didn't know?" asks Leonard.]

["Leonard, I had no idea," says Robbie. "I was with the volunteers all day."]

["I guess with everything people here have lost," says Miriam, "not just in the explosion, but with the recession... Their retirement, their homes, a lot of them...something like this happens and it's easy to start acting like it's the end of the world."]

["Why aren't you?" Robbie asks, wondering at the source of her obvious calm, forgetting what he should know.]

[The look she gives him is the most cutting someone can direct at another person because it is fueled by a mother's love and a mother's loss. Her words are a knife slipped between his ribs, and it's what he deserves, it's what he deserves, he'll never stop deserving it. She could pull out his still beating heart and crush it in her fist and with his last breath he'd apologize for getting his blood on her pumps.]

["My world ended the day my son died," she says to Robbie and his face crumples and he doesn't bother wishing for the ground to swallow him up because it's too easy and painless compared to what she has to live with, compared to what he's done to her.]

[Compared to what he's done to her son.]

[What he's done, what he's done, it surges out in a rush just from being touched like a pricked abscess spilling out nastiness from an infected wound.]

[The memory flashes to something else, to Robbie on a prison transport with his green giantess of a lawyer. He is wearing his old superhero costume but is in handcuffs and his head is shaved. There's a sea of angry people outside. His face is bruised like he's been beaten. It happened in prison. Most inmates aren't overly fond of people that kill little kids.]

[He's young but with his shaved head and exhausted expression, he looks older.]

[She-Hulk says: "You're not exactly in a position where you should make people angry."]

[Robbie bows his head in his hand. "I seem to have done pretty good so far. According to them, I murdered sixty innocent kids."]

[He's led off the transport through a sea of people towards the steps of the Capitol building, towards a special hearing waiting for him inside. The event he caused is large enough to warrant testimony in front of Congress. There is no one in the crowd on his side, they hold signs that read things like "Burn, Baldwin, burn!" Faces filled with pure hate reflect back at him, endless voices scream, "Monster!" "Murderer!" "You deserve to fry, Baldwin!"]

[A women gets close to being right in his face, and she's shoved aside by security as she screams shrilly, "Babykiller! Babykiller! The blood of those babies is on your hands!" (He's been called some variation of "baby" or "kiddie" killer so many times by so many people it doesn't sound like language anymore.)].

[The press are there in droves. "- Reporting live at the Capitol building, where Robert Baldwin, the vigilante known as Speedball, is about to give testimony about his role in the massacre at Stamford, Connecticut. Baldwin is being held responsible for 612 civilian deaths, 60 of them innocent schoolchildren -"]

[A flash forward again to Stamford, the same night as the magic hammers being strewn around, to a crowd of random innocent civilians, holding him where he kneels on the ground. One of them is suffocating him to death with a plastic bag, bypassing his kinetic powers. They hate him that much, that normal people are willing to lynch him.]

[He doesn't fight it.]

[Jason hears his thoughts as he fades: Maybe it's better... Just let them do it... S'what I deserve. ]

[When the memories retreat in a wave he's still kneeling there, unmoving, staring into the blackness of his own mind, his face wet with tears. He doesn't bother arguing anymore about anything Jason's done.]

[robintohood]

[Jason nearly collapses. The shock of that memory.... no, it was memories. It was a wave of memories he just went through. They were the memories of a deeply traumatized and troubled man.

What was the Stamford incident? How could so many people have died? How could so many children have died? It's easy to loathe Robbie but the overwhelming sense of guilt and despair over all those deaths isn't what a monster would feel. Whatever the full story is, it can't be good. But can't have been something Robbie did on purpose. Could it? He has too much remorse.

Jason's heart also sinks knowing this was the same man he had such a fun conversation with at the bookstore. but it explains the books Robbie was buying. It also explains the brief glimpses of darkness Jason caught from Robbie, both as a civilian and as Speedball.

Feeling ready to give up one's life and that no one will miss him is also disturbingly familiar to him. It's happened to him more than he would like to admit.

After what feels like a very long silent moment, Jason finally steps forward and reaches to touch Robbie on the shoulder]

Robbie?

[Jason's voice doesn't have his usual deep Red Hood growl. It sounds more like the man Robbie talked to at the bookstore, though not as light as during that encounter]

[an_extra_hour]

[ It's bad enough sometimes having things trigger memories or feelings or mental images. But while there are awful, terrible days, it's still gotten better over time. It's been hard, because getting better takes work, and he is so so tired sometimes. Sometimes he just avoids it and denies any problems, but inevitably he'll hit some kind of wall privately and have to acknowledge it. But he has to deal with it alone. His friends don't deserve the burden and he doesn't trust therapists, not after the doctors in the Thunderbolts program, not after Moonstone and the doctors in the asylum, not after being kept miserable and amnesiac in the Initiative.

[He knows he should probably reach out, see if Doc Samson is a) alive and b) available but the squirming anxiety around talking to someone makes it hard to reach out even to him, the one mental health professional that genuinely helped him.]

[Still, he's gotten at least a little better...but this wasn't just some kind of trigger in his environment, this was being dragged back and dunked into a sea of hate and guilt and self-loathing, during a time he struggled to feel like he deserved anything else.]

[His brain, like many people with PTSD, has irregular pathways and chemistry. His response to outright re-experiencing the memories is to dissociate a little to protect itself, something he fortunately rarely faces anymore. Jason can likely feel the slight withdraw, the distance, the floating sensation.]

[It's even harder by virtue of the fact they're both locked in some weird memory-space with only their own self-concepts of their physical bodies. There's no outside stimuli to focus on. But he feels the touch on his shoulder. It's something external, a nudge they're both contextualizing as physical. He turns his head to look at Jason's hand, surprised to see it there.]

Hmm?

[He says it like someone trying to pretend they're following a conversation with someone else.]

[He pulls his thoughts together just a little, looks at him with wide eyes.]

You don't have to be nice to me. You shouldn't be nice to me. Not over this.

[Why is a crime lord being nice to him? The thought is loud enough for Jason to hear. That makes even less sense than some other people being nice because some people he can chalk it up to them being too nice for their own good.]

CW: Child abuse and drug abuse

[robintohood]

[Jason removes his mask to reveal himself as the man Robbie talked to before. He also has the same green eyes as the teenager Robbie saw. At this point, there's no use in keeping their masks on in this shared mindspace.

Jason can feel Robbie's mind disassociating after the memories they just experienced. That's another reaction Jason's painfully familiar with. It's a defense mechanism. Some memories will never fade. Instead, they just as painful as the day it happened. They're forever burned into a person.]

I fight the way I do because I know real monsters exist.

[Somewhere in the distance, someone is maniacally laughing]

I've met monsters who traumatize, maim, and kill for fun.

[Now the sounds of a blunt metal object striking something joins the laughter]

They never regret it either and will happily keep doing it again.

[Before Jason realizes it, it's another memory plunge. This time it seems to be this one. (Up to 2:03)

Jason throws the Joker onto the floor of the decrepit apartment he's using. Finally, Jason's so close to rectifying Bruce's mistake. He just needs a little more time.

The Joker's just as defiant as ever. No surprise there. Jason ignores the psycho's prattling as he silently takes out the crowbar. He had been waiting five years for this moment. It was the least the Joker deserved after all the people he's traumatized, maimed, and killed.

The Joker's defiance drops upon seeing the crowbar Jason takes out. Jason feels cold pleasure from seeing the criminal now becoming fearful. Good. The monster's grin should've been wiped off years ago, before so many people died.

Then something happens to the memory. With every crowbar strike the Red Hood makes against the Joker, there's also a glimpse of the Joker doing the same crowbar strikes on a teenager. He's the same young man Robbie saw before. It seems two memories are bleeding into each other.

When the Joker says "tell me more," Jason is cold again as he yanks the Joker and beats him more. Unlike the Joker, Jason doesn't kill or hurt for fun. Each action has a purpose. And in this case, the Joker's only part of the plan. Soon, he'll meet Bruce and force him to finally make a choice. Does he value his son or his so-called moral code?

Jason hopes Bruce finally makes the right choice. It should be clear what it is. Just like years ago when Jason's mother was still alive.

Then a third memory plays. There's miasma of depression in the shabby apartment. Jason looks at his mother with a mix of disappointment and depression as she gives him what little money she's willing to give to have something to eat. The rest of the money is going to drugs, like it always does. Reluctantly, Jason leaves the apartment. He doesn't want to but they do need food.

When he walks past Robby, Jason's temper briefly flares up and he curses at him. He hates him so much for feeding into his mother's addiction and for constantly taking away what little money his mother had. There've been so many time when Jason and Catherine couldn't feed themselves or were freezing because they didn't have the money for food, better clothes, or to pay for heating.

Then Robby grabs him and slams him against the wall. For a moment, all Jason can see is just flashes of light because of his head hitting the wall. Then he sees Robby's knife and is terrified for his life. He can't die. There's no one else who can take care of his mother.

Robby let goes and resumes head to Jason's apartment to meet Catherine. Meanwhile, Jason slides down against the wall and cries. He's so tired of all the pain and misery he and his mother are going through. Something needs to change.

The memory seems to briefly fritz and then resumes with Jason against the wall again. Evidently though, he did get the bread as it's sitting next to him. Finally Robby comes out of the apartment and is clearly high. The man makes one more nasty remark about his mother before stumbling towards the stairs.

That's it. Jason has had enough. No more abuse. The time between Jason deciding and Jason acting on that decision is only seconds. Glaring at the drug dealer's back, Jsaon pushes him down the stairs. There's loud tumble and crash before the body hits the floor. Blood begins to leak out of the man. Meanwhile, at the top of the stairs, Jason just stares. He feels no pleasure at what he's done but he's not sorry either. It had to be done.

The memories finally stop and now it's Jason's turn to back away. He feels exposed and wants to flee. No one needed to see all of that just now. It was no one's business to know how deeply hurt he's been. He can handle himself just fine. He doesn't need anyone anymore]