metalogs | [Open] Marching to the beat of his drum

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[Open] Marching to the beat of his drum

Who: Jason Todd

robintohood and you
What: Various antics as a civilian and as Red Hood
When: Throughout March
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: PG-13 level violence

Jason:

[The weather is gradually warming up and moods are lifting up for people! Well, lifting up for most people. For the owner of the Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge, he’s just briskly working as usual. Maybe he’s being less talkative and more introverted than usual but sometimes that’s what happens when one is busy. He even sometimes still puts on a smile to make customers feel more welcomed.

But that’s assuming people are following his rules. If otherwise, then his vocabulary gets colorful as he snarls out statements like…]

Pull that shit again and your brains get splattered across the floor.

[Okay, maybe how much rougher he’s gotten this month when he’s literally throwing and kicking out belligerent patrons might indicate he’s in a certain other kind of Mood. Don’t worry. He doesn’t usually bite.

On a note that can’t possibly be related, the 4-eyed black and yellow talking cat that used to hang out at the Descendant hasn’t been seen in a while]

Red Hood:

[The Backbreakers are as active as ever in Central City. They had a few setbacks over the last few months but that hasn’t kept them down. They’re maintaining their territory. Illicit goods are still being handled. The racketeering business is sturdy. The chop shops are always having a good time. If you ask a local in their territory, they might say the gang members are also friendly neighborhood vigilantes.
The Backbreakers are Society members after all. Overall, the gang’s recovery has been okay.

So in their territory during an evening, it’s possible you might see the Backbreakers’ leader with a couple of his people outside of a dive bar.

Though the Red Hood’s helmet hides his facial expressions, the way he’s whaling at a rule breaker might indicate he’s not in the best of moods at the moment. Blood splatters on his helmet also indicate how brutal he’s being tonight. He then drags his screaming victim by the hair across the sidewalk]

It’s time to get back to basics.

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Donnie's no slouch either. Admittedly he hasn't done much escaping via rooftops but it's been a primary way of travel for him and his brothers since going around on the streets wasn't an option with so many people there. But he'd be a pretty lousy ninja if he weren't able to improvise, or if he didn't stay aware of his surroundings.

While he doesn't chance a look behind him, he hears something, and a proximity warning coming up on his internal HUD. The helmeted figure leaps high, twisting in the air to avoid the bolas that go flying past. Wow, really? But then he supposes that's better than being shot at.

He snags a hold of the roof's edge before he can go falling completely off of it, dropping down onto the railing of the fire escape below, already redirecting his weight and momentum to throw himself across the gap to the next building's so he can swing himself back up.

Hmm… not bad moves at all. The figure is not a rookie so Jason will give them that much. He’s holding back from using his guns for now as he doesn’t want to risk stray bullets hitting someone innocent.

Despite his bulk, Jason’s surprisingly agile and is expertly using parkour to navigate and keep up the pace. He uses moves similar to Donnie when he reaches the fire escape and the gap to the next building. As soon as he lands, he throws several smoke pellets at the turtle.

Oh now what-

Donnie should have figured that Red Hood's not about to just drop a chase so easily. He turns as the first pellet hits, bracing himself for the worst, surprised when it's just smoke. -crap, guard up!

He switches his readouts to infrared even as he turns, facing where they'd come up from. Despite the rooftop race he's not breathing too hard, and although he knows this misunderstanding can be easily cleared up if he just says something, part of him is relishing this weird engagement. He's toeing a dangerous line and he knows it, but if he doesn't know what all else this world intends to throw at them, he wants to be ready.

It's not just that. Donnie just wants to feel that rush of adrenaline, something to try pushing him out of whatever funk of numbness still insists on clinging to him in the wake of his brother's death, some unnamed feeling that stubbornly hangs on even though Leo's been brought back.

There’s something thrilling and primal in being a chase. It’s a basic feeling that most living beings understand. It’s one party preying on another. It’s a test against each other’s skills.

It’s also a good distraction from the ache Jason’s been feeling this month after Sleeper left. Adrenaline has always been a great thing to turn to when much more unpleasant feelings are around. He’s been alone for years. Why should that change now?

So Jason focuses on tracking down his quarry. His helmet’s thermal vision is on as he scans the area. As soon as he catches sight of what he thinks is the dark figure, he throws several shuriken and then a pair of bolas.

Being alone is something Donnie can't fathom. Maybe finding that he really wasn't alone in a place like this had spoiled him, and then when he'd taken it for granted, life sucker-punched him when he'd already been knocked off his feet.

The brisk run had warmed him up some, so he did come up to some degree on Jason's radar. Weird enough to be familiar, or at least seem off? Or maybe just moving too fast. Donnie knows better than to stand still for long, he's aware he's not the only one sporting such tech and that'd probably become clear to Red Hood as well once he sees the figure react.

Donnie throws himself to the side, hearing the metal whistle past. He doesn't get a breath before he's pushing himself into a backwards cartwheel to avoid the bolas. Just how many of those things does the guy keep on him anyway? Still too close- it's hard gauging what you can't clearly see, and he feels one of the bolas snag his foot. Immediately he shifts his hands on the ground, bracing himself with his arms as he cuts his cartwheel short, twisting his lower half of his body in a pseudo-breakdance maneuver so he can keep the bolas' momentum going with his leg, not giving it a chance to wrap around as he lashes out his foot to send it flying back in Red Hood's direction.

The shurikens were meant to be distractions while the bolas were supposed to do the real work. In Jason’s mind, most people would dodge the sharp objects first and not think about what might come flying right after that. What Donnie did instead isn’t quite what he expected.

After watching his quarry skillfully avoid getting fully tangled up, a small part of Jason is annoyed. But a much bigger part of him is excited that this isn’t going to be a short fight.

He jerks to the side to avoid his own weapon before firing his grapple gun right at Donnie.

There's a thrill to it, a different feel than when you were out fighting numerous foes in a battlefield. Not to say that it didn't take skill in that setting, but there's something about facing off one against one. Although Donnie tends to rely a lot on his tech and nowadays his ninpō, when he's focused, that's when his skills as a ninja really do shine.

That noise again- Donnie's ready now. Vaulting back onto his feet, he reaches behind him, pulling out a short cylinder that extends into a full-sized metal staff. He expertly weaves it around him before snagging the line of the grapple, dropping down as he sets one end against the roof to let the grapple head whirl around its new pivot before he tries yanking his bō sharply to try disarming Red Hood.

His shoulder is going to hurt a lot later but Jason keeps a tight grip on his grapple gun. He feels the jerk and can guess what his opponent is trying to do. So instead of resisting and pulling against, Jason presses the withdraw button on his grapple gun and zips forward, right towards Donnie and ready to punch him.

Red Hood reacts faster than him at that point, but then physics aren't on Donnie's side when he'd already been yanking on the line. The other comes too fast for him to evade, not when he's in the process of pushing up onto his feet.

But it doesn't mean he's not going to try to defend himself, even when Hood's coming in swinging. The odds are still in Red Hood's favor as Donnie tries to twirl his staff around to catch that fist before it can connect, but it's a little harder when the guy's line is attached to it.

The zip line in danger of getting tangled makes things tricky but Jason at least now has his adversary right in front of him. His fist hits Donnie’s staff. A second later, a double-edged sword appears out of thin air and into that same hand.

“Hi. Going somewhere?” He says in an inappropriately casual tone.

It's a precarious position to be in. Kind of scary, actually, being on the receiving end, but behind the mask, Donnie finds himself almost grinning. Maybe he's losing it, maybe he's reached his emotional quota and everything's just broken but the buzz of adrenaline takes away the edge of any real fear he rationally should have. But if rationality had a place here, he wouldn't have bolted or led a killer on a chase across rooftops.

"Was kind of planning on it," he replies, his voice purposely distorted, almost monotone as it filtered out. He keeps a firm grasp on his staff, gunmetal accented with metallic purple, his eyes unseen but flicking between Red Hood's weapon and the man himself for any tells that he might make another move.

"Nice of you not to shoot me though."

Jason knows his opponent is hiding his voice but something about the purple accents feels familiar to him.

“Figured we should have a nice chat first,” Jason replies, still in an arrogant tone.

While one sword is pressed against Donnie’s bo, Jason summons another sword and uses that to try to stab the turtle.

"You really are scary in business-mode."

Donnie'd been anticipating the other blade. He's also got a brother who uses dual weapons, although to be fair, they'd never done any really serious sparring. The moment he sees the other weapon appear, he's already jerking his staff around, twisting it at a slight angle so the first blade scrapes down its shaft and slices through the cable wrapped around it to free it up.

Red Hood's still moving faster than he'd calculated, and he tries to twist to avoid the other sword when he realizes he can't get his staff around in time. He can feel it graze the edge of his plastron as it slices past his jacket. That could have been messy, not that it doesn't still hurt, but he backs off now that his staff is free, holding it in a defensive stance.

Nothing like a little pain to start wicking off the adrenaline, the rational part of his mind trying to offer a suggestion, maybe drop the charade now before you get yourself killed, huh pal? But that's the easy way out, not that Donnie's quite figured out how the hard way would play out, he hasn't really been planning ahead for any of this.

The longer Jason fights and listens to the mysterious figure, the more he feels like he should know them. It’s part of why he hasn’t given up yet. Another reason is that the thrill of the chase and now the adrenaline of the fight is entirely distracting him from the aching sense of loss he’s been feeling this month.

Strip down to some basic truths and things feel less complicated. And right now, a truth Jason is focused on is someone had been trying to spy on him and tried to flee. He couldn’t just leave that hanging.

Jason chuckles when Donnie manages to get himself free of the zip line.

“What can I say? I’m a professional. Like what you saw?” He taunts before charging again with both swords at the ready.

"I've seen better," GameOvR says, not that he'd ever tell Leo that. He spins his staff, just as ready to fend off. He's hanging onto this feeling, anchored in the moment where he doesn't have to think too much about all the things that had happened, or the things that could have happened. There's nothing else to focus on except the masked man in front of him and the weapons he wields.

It's exhilarating. It's dangerous too, no lie there, and he's not sure if Red Hood will be angry if he finds out, but Donnie tosses that care to the wind as he spins his weapon to block and thrust the blunted ends when he finds the chance to.

Jason’s blades make contact with the staff and he’s forced to jump to the side to try and dodge. Donnie’s weapon successfully hits him but between the body armor, the stamina, sheer stubbornness, Jason not out yet. He remains armed and is only keeping a short distance from Donnie.

“Did anyone ever tell you no one likes a snoop?”

Donnie pulls his staff back, watching Red Hood closely.

"It's not really snooping when you're not even trying to be quiet about what you're doing," he points out. "I'm just a guy passing through." Which is largely true, even if he's probably suspiciously dressed by Jason's standards.

“Yeah and I’m just a businessman,” Jason retorts.

He charges forward again and attempts to slash at Donnie with one of his swords.

"It's not illegal to multitask."

Metal rings as Donnie swiftly brings his tech-bō up to meet that strike, aiming to keep it moving aside then directly stopping its momentum. If he can slide it past him, he can keep his own staff's momentum up as he spins it to jerk the other end up towards Red Hood's chin.

Jason jumps one step back and just barely misses the uppercut. There really is something very familiar about the way his opponent is using his weapon and not just because a couple of Jason’s younger brothers are also bo users.

“Nah but costumed weirdos tend to have agendas,” Jason quips.

Donnie's in his element, the staff practically an extension of himself for how he wields it. He presses the offensive once Red Hood's moving back.

"Spoken from experience, right?"

“Naturally,” Jason says, unashamed.

One sword clashes hard against the staff. Meanwhile, Jason’s other hand drops the other sword and a taser hidden in his sleeve slides out. He turns it on and slams it hard against the staff.

He'd been getting cocky. By the time Donnie realizes what Red Hood's got in his hand as he blocks the first sword, it's a second too late.

"....."

...it's a bit anticlimactic as the charge releases, and for a brief moment the turtle holds his breath. A second later, he's still standing.

"Titanium's only got an electrical conductivity of roughly three percent."

And then he's pushing back with the bō, trying to swing at Red Hood again.

Welp. Lesson learned. He turns and uses the arm still holding a sword to block the staff before whipping out one of his handguns to shoot Donnie in the arm.

Somehow, Donnie'd forgotten all about the gun. He'd gotten caught up in a good old melee fight, his cockiness only stoked for the impromptu science lesson. Locked as he is with his staff against the blade, there really isn't much time to move when the gun goes off.

He's never been shot before, and it all happens so fast that his brain's not fully registering it, save for the burning spike of a sensation in his arm, somehow feeling both hot and cold. He'd tried to move but it hadn't been enough, and now he's hardly moving for the shock of what had happened, taking a step back, grip from his shot arm faltering around his staff.

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