Chapter Text
Dick frowned as Constantine pulled out his cell phone, “Do you know what’s wrong with Jason?”
“I have a suspicion but I need to contact an expert.” Constantine tapped out a cigarette from the case, placing it in his mouth as the phone rang.
Dick tried to stand close enough to overhear.
A younger, male, voice picked up, “Hey, how can I help Const?”
“I got a bit of a conundrum. See I got a person here acting oddly, even for him, and his eyes are literally glowing bright neon green. Like leaking green glow out of his eyes.”
There was a pause on the other side of the line, “What else?”
“They were dead at one point, but no idea how they came back, they’re territorial and don’t have many interests or things they're involved in. Oh, and I think they're physically stronger than you at your base.”
“How did they die and uh, undie?”
“Not sure on the undie but they were beaten almost to death and then blown up.”
“That could lead to them staying but you really don’t know how they came back? That’s kind of important.”
Dick frowned but shared something that the Bat family had been keeping relatively close to themselves, “We’re not certain we think the revival happened roughly when Superboy prime bunched through the multiverse.”
“Right,” The voice on the phone spoke, “A break in the fabric of reality and someone who was still clinging on… that could cause the change but in the past the death and revival happened at the same time.”
Constantine snorted, “We’re dealing with a cape here, things aren’t likely to be typical.”
“A cape?”
“You know heroes and heroines? You were a cape back when you were a kid.”
“Okay, so a… cape. Which one?”
“Red Hood.”
“Wait, he’s active in Gotham right?”
“Yep.”
“Huh, that would explain how he’s been stable, I mean I’m guessing this is the first time the glowing has happened?”
“Not sure,” Constantine turned to Dick, “He ever glow before?”
“Not for this long, or this much. I mean his eyes glow when the pit rage takes over but this is the first time his eyes are literally emitting light.”
“Did you hear that?”
The voice hummed, “Yeah… let me grab something.” A muffled muttering of, “Here paper paper, here paper, ah! Now… Const I know secret identities are important but would Red Hood’s name happen to um rhyme with, shit I practically failed English, chasen lood?”
Dick froze as Constantine nodded, “I can see why you almost failed English mate but yeah, his name… rhymes with chasen lood.”
“Shit… okay how bad is it? Is it just glowing eyes?”
“In my sight he’s glowing all over, but I think he’s talking in your tongue and someone mentioned his territory and he nearly tore the cuff holding him to the med bed. They’ve moved him to a holding cell but he’s doing some definite damage to the walls and these are meta proof cells. It’s why the bats think he got drugged or something.”
“What happened shortly before this behavior?”
“The Joker targeted all the schools in Gotham, had bombs set up in all of them and it was the middle of the day. Apparently, he was taunting Batman that the only way to stop him setting the bombs off was to kill him. Red Hood shot and killed him.”
“Alright… what does that mean? I mean Red Hood does kill people.”
“Hood could have been said to be seen as… obsessed with Batman killing the Joker.”
“Really? Isn’t Batman’s big thing no killing?”
“Yeah, don’t quite understand why he wanted Bats to break the rule for that.”
Tim walked up to Constantine’s other side, “He wanted Batman to kill the Joker because the Joker killed him. If we are talking about things Hood is potentially obsessed with then I would list protecting children, protecting crime alley, and Robin.”
The voice over the phone hummed, “That could be it, if protecting children is an obsession, he had to basically destroy one of his own obsessions to participate in the other, it could have fractured his core…”
Tim frowned, “His core?”
“I… I need to see him before I say anything else.”
Dick and Tim shared a look before Dick looked to Constantine, “He can really help?”
“If I’m right? He’s our only chance.”
“Get him here. I’ll tell B we got incoming.”