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#1

Seeing Red

By Kage Logan

 

Part One

My real name is not really important at the moment… at least not while I'm here on this world.

Before you wonder if you heard that right let me say yes, you did hear me right. The reason behind that statement is that I'm not from this world or this reality for that matter. My world and this one are similar but each has their own differences.

What differences are there you may ask. Well there are too many to name. I can state the biggest one of all has to be the Crime Syndicate of America. Bottom line about these guys is that they are a flipped version of this world's Justice League of America. The CSA ruled our world with an iron fist.

I came onto the scene as Owlman's sidekick Talon. I was trained to be the best out of the other sidekicks that were recruited by the other members of the Syndicate. We became the Young Offenders and after proving myself I became their leader. For a short time I was happy and even fell in love with Ultragirl, the clone of Ultraman. But then the day came that I finally grew tired of jumping through the Syndicate's hoops and eventually found a way to escape to this world.

Don't ask me how cause honestly I couldn't tell you. After getting my head straight, I eventually found myself in Gotham City. I studied everything I could about the new world I found myself in and eventually discovered the Batman. To say I was amazed would be an understatement. I watched and learned all I could about the man and how he operates. Then I watched the ones he considers his Bat Family as best as I could. They were all amazing and did their best in the war on crime. Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Catwoman, Huntress, Onyx, and even the ones that died in the line of duty like Orpheus, Azrael, Spoiler, and the second Robin, Jason Todd.

On a side note it should be known that Jason Todd is not dead anymore. Dude came back thanks to some Prime guy knocking on the walls between worlds and started kicking butt as the new Red Hood. He's disappeared now and rumor has it he's going by a new name now.

For over a year I studied the Batman and how he operated. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and figure out that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Bruce and Thomas' pasts basically mirror each other. You know except for the fact that one was a hero and the other was a psycho.

It wasn't long after that, that I cracked most of the identities of Batman's allies.

Bruce Wayne. Batman.

Dick Grayson. Nightwing.

Tim Drake. Robin.

Barbara Gordon. Oracle.

(Barbara recently changed her last name to Grayson after getting married to Dick. I have to remember to update the file when I get time.)

Cassandra Cain. Batgirl.

Selina Kyle. Catwoman.

It was kind of fun learning everything I could and watching them work. However I knew that sooner or later I wanted to get out there and do some good of my own.

During one of my explorations of Gotham City I uncovered the hideout of Jason Todd formerly the Red Hood. From the look of things the place looked like it had been abandoned for a while. Jason had just about everything in this place and now thanks to lady luck so did I. But it wasn't the guns, or the ammo, or even the rocket launchers I was interested in. Nope I was more excited about the gadgets. For some reason I always loved the toys that came along with the job.

So after a little bit of spring cleaning, I got rid of the guns and everything else I didn't really need. Luckily a rich weapons collector wanted them after finding out that they were used by the Red Hood. He even paid triple the asking price. I made a nice chunk of change and used the money to set myself up in Gotham City.

I now had money, equipment, and a base of operations, the only thing I was missing was a costume and a name. When I left my old life I left Talon with it. With a new start, I needed a new identity. Luckily one was up for grabs at the moment.

So after taking up the mantle once used by Jason Todd and hiring the services of a man known as the Tailor, I struck out as the new Red Hood. I had to do a lot of hard work in order to make the Red Hood identity a respectable name. For the first couple of weeks I think I did a pretty good job. A group of bank robbers, a couple of thieves, three muggers, and a couple of gang bangers allowed me to improve my reputation and my hero skills.

However it was a kidnapping scheme set up by the Mad Hatter that would bring me my very first ally in crime fighting.

The Mad Hatter's target was a super genius computer expert named Cameron Webster. Cameron was the son of billionaire Marcus Webster head of Web Tech Industries. Hatter wanted to improve his mind control tech as well as make a fortune. So his plan was to kill two birds with one stone and go after Cameron. But the Hatter was sloppy and left a nice trail for me to follow back to Wonderland. A quick save later and Cameron was free to return home.

And return home he did, but not before making me an offer that I couldn't and wouldn't refuse. He offered his money and skills in helping me in my crime fighting adventures. For some strange reason I knew I could trust him and so I brought him in to my command center. Cameron didn't waste any time in filling the whole place with state of the art technology and thus he became my partner. Funny thing is he sees himself as being a level away from being just like Oracle. And thus our adventures as partners in crime fighting began.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gotham City.

The South Side

The night was pretty chilly as Red Hood stood on the edge of the rooftop looking over the city. He had done the same thing every night for almost six months now and every night kept him as busy as the last.

Just like every night he waited for the sound that would break the silence and send him into action. Tonight it would be the sound of a woman screaming that would be heard ringing through the night.

After scanning the area for a moment, Red Hood was able to use the scanning tech in his helmet to pinpoint where the sound was coming from, and a second later he leapt off the rooftop heading in the sounds direction. As soon as his feet hit the ground Red Hood was running through the maze that made up the South Side's back alleys until he came upon the area the scream originated from.

Problem was there was no one there once he arrived.

“Strange,” Red Hood said as he examined the surrounding area.

{{What's strange Red?}} a voice asked through the communications link hidden within Red Hood's helmet. The voice belonged to Hood's partner Cameron Webster, or as Hood started calling him Webs.

“I heard a scream,” replied Red Hood while he continued looking around the area. “As soon as I got here, there was no one here. However, I've found signs of a struggle.”

{{How do you know there was a struggle?}}

“Lets' just say that I've been trained to notice even the littlest signs, Webs,” Red Hood stated as he had a memory flash of himself being punished when he would mess up during training. After a moment of shaking the memory from his mind, he picked up a woman's high heel shoe.

{{Is that a woman's shoe?}} Webs asked looking at the shoe through the lenses of Red Hoods helmet.

“Yeah, and from the looks of it, it's fairly new and expensive,” Hood stated, kneeling down to get a better look at the ground. “It looks like I found some foot prints here and it looks like something swept over them.”

{{Could be a cape, cloak, or a long coat. Who knows with the psychos running around nowadays.}}

“Maybe,” said Red Hood. “Grab some shots and see what you can come up with.”

{{Already on it,}} Webs said as the images began down loading into the computers mainframe. The system automatically converted the images into a 3-D image and began scanning for different features. {{Okay size and depth of the prints says your suspect is a male at least six feet tall and heavy. Could be fat or muscles. Unknown at the moment.}}

“Can you tell how many I'm looking for?”

{{From the images I've found at least six different sizes, with six different tread patterns. Some were messed up by whatever it is that they are wearing. I'd be on the look out for others just in case.}}

“I may have found something,” Red Hood said before removing a piece of fabric from a jagged piece of metal. “The fabrics red. Could be from a dress,” Red Hood said as he examined the fabric. Looking around for a moment he noticed a security camera nearby. “I found some eyes watching the area. Hook up and see what you can get.”

{{On it,}} Webs said as he hacked into the city surveillance system and found the cameras he was looking for. {{I suggest you move east and fast, Red. Camera just caught a group of cloaked men heading that way and they may have a hostage.}}

“I'm on it,” Red Hood said taking off towards the eastern direction as fast as he could.

{{Okay Hood, the guys just got into a white van. They're heading north. I suggest you hit the rooftops.}}

“Gotcha.”

Moving through the alley ways, Red Hood crossed from one alley over the small street and into another alley way. With a great leap he landed on a fire escape and headed to the rooftops in order to follow the white van. After a few minutes of running and jumping the rooftops he found himself about a block ahead of the white van.

Reaching into one of the pouches on his belt, Red Hood removed several marble sized objects and rolled them around in his hand for a moment, while waiting for the van to get closer. Once it was in the right position, he threw them towards the ground and watched as they exploded in bright bursts of smoke and light.

“Time to make an entrance,” he said as he jumped from the roof top and landed right on top of the vans hood as it came screeching to a halt.

Hood did a back flip and landed on the ground, but not before placing several silver dollar sized disks on the windshield and the hood. Standing up, he pressed a small red button and watched as the disks exploded shattering the windshield and destroying the van's engine.

“I suggest you guys let the woman go and come out of the van slowly,” Red Hood said as two red folded pieces of metal slid from his jackets sleeves into his hands. With a flick of his wrists, he opened them up and revealed them to be a couple of batarangs, or as Webs had come to call them ‘Redarangs'.

He watched as all the doors of the van opened up and seven large men stepped out coughing from the smoke that filled the van. All seven men wore the same dark red cloak and used hoods to cover their faces. Hood noticed that the fabric he found earlier came from one of the mens cloaks.

“Okay fellas, let me guess. You guys just came from some sort of Halloween party right?” Red Hood asked almost jokingly for a moment. “Look I don't know if you guys drank the Kool-Aid or what, but here in Gotham we don't take too kindly to kidnappers. So I suggest you let the woman go and maybe I won't have to send you to the intensive care ward.”

None of the seven men said anything and only exchanged looks with one another for a moment before removing identical two foot long blades from their cloaks.

“Kill him for the mistress,” one of the men ordered. With incredible quickness for men their sizes all seven men rushed forward preparing to strike Red Hood with killing blows.

With a surprise of his own, Red Hood rushed forward with Redarangs in hand and began countering each attack liked a skilled swordsman. With a quick kick to one of the men's groin area that sent him doubling over, Red Hood used the man as a stepping stool and jumping over the others. With a flick of his wrist Red Hood attached a cable line to one of the Redarangs and then sent it flying towards one of the men, tying him up quickly and pulling him to the ground.

Jumping on top of the van, Red Hood leapt over a light post and used his weight and momentum to lift the guy into the air. Tying the line off quickly, Hood turned quickly enough to avoid two of the men's blades that were aimed at his lower back. Taking an object about the size of a domino, he pressed it in the middle and let the contents release into the two men's faces. Within seconds the two men were unconscious on the ground.

“Three down… any of you guys wanna try and see who can do better?” Red Hood asked looking at the other men still standing.

The men answered him as they each ran at him once again. Reaching behind his back Red Hood withdrew two escrima sticks and began blocking attacks. After returning a few hits, he pressed a tiny button on each of the weapons and two tiny needles appeared on the end. As he continued beating each attacker in the head and chest area repeatedly, he stuck each man with the needles injecting them with a strong sedative. After a few minutes, he stood over the bodies of the men, his breathing slightly faster at the moment.

{{What are you gonna do with them now?}} asked Webs as his voice finally came back over the comm link.

“Call the GCPD, let them know that they have some gifts waiting for pick up,” Red Hood said as he began to calm down.

{{Hey can we talk about these weird bio readings I keep getting whenever you fight?}}

“No,” Hood simply replied while he began tying the rest of the cloaked men up. Once they were secured, Red Hood walked to the side of the van and pulled the door open revealing a bound and gagged young woman. “Hold on miss,” he said as he began to untie her.

With in a few minutes, a very angry red headed woman actually snapped the last of her bonds. Red Hood was surprised to feel the solid grip of the woman's hand as it shot out and took him by the throat.

“You won't catch me by surprise again!” the young woman exclaimed while keeping her grip.

Reacting quickly Red Hood grabbed the girls' wrist with one hand and used the other to punch a pressure point on her arm that made her let go immediately.

“I believe you're mistaken,” Red Hood said as he rubbed his throat. Taking a look at the girl before him, he realized right away that: 1.) she wasn't the owner of the high heel shoe he had found and 2.) that she was a meta-human. “I'm not one of the cloaked creeps that kidnapped you.”

“Sorry,” the girl said sweeping strands of red hair out of her masked face. “I was on patrol when I saw these guys trying to abduct a high society type. I help them off long enough for the woman to escape, but then they caught me from behind. These guys were pretty tough, how did you take'em down?”

“With enough sedatives to knock down an elephant,” Red Hood replied. Looking too his left he noticed police lights and sirens coming in the distance. “Maybe we should continue this somewhere else.”

“Like where?” the young woman asked.

Red Hood put his arm around her waist and fired a cable line to the top of the building. With a tug of his wrist the cable line retracted pulling them both up towards the top of the building adjacent to the area he left the cloaked men.

“Who are you any way?”

“You can call me Red Hood,” he replied retracting the cable line back into its holder. “Now is there anything you can tell me about the men who attacked you?”

“Not really,” replied the young woman. “Except that one of them said something about a Blood Countess. He said that they had to bring the Blood Countess young, fresh women. I thought it sounded pretty weird.”

“Did you get that?” Red Hood asked looking away from the young woman.

{{Yeah,}} Webs replied. {{I'll do a world wide search for anyone using the name Blood Countess or who might use henchmen dressed in those cloaks.}}

“Good. I'm on my way back,” Red Hood said before taking off running in the opposite direction and leaping off the roof.

“Hey wait!” the young woman exclaimed as she watched Red Hood swing off into the night. “That's rude, he didn't even ask me my name,” she commented walking towards the building's fire escape.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gotham City

Within a recently purchased and remolded condo, a group of cloaked men stood before a woman dressed in a long, dark, & red silk dressing gown. Her long red hair secured tightly in a bun. She was beautiful with silky smooth, almost pale skin and eyes that you could get lost in forever.

“What do you have to report to me, faithful servants?” she asked, taking a wine glass from one of her female servants.

“Mistress, all have returned except for group three,” one of the men said as he bowed before the woman. “One of your servants reported that local authorities were seen taking them into custody a few hours ago.”

“What happened?”

“We have reports that a masked man intercepted your servants while out bringing you the victims you requested,” the man replied. “He fought well and subdued the entire group and was able to free the young woman.”

The woman handed the glass back to her servant before standing up from her throne-like seat. “See that those who failed me are dealt with before they can reveal anything they know,” she said walking down a couple steps. “And have our people watching for this masked man. I want to have a word with him personally.”

“As you wish, mistress,” the entire room said as she turned and walked behind the throne and into a secret room behind it with several of her female servants.

Within the room was a sight of horror that few had ever seen before. Several young women could be seen bound and hanging upside down, their throats cut and all their blood drained into what looked like a large Jacuzzi tub.

“This masked man can not be allowed to interfere with our plans again,” the Blood Countess said as her servants helped remove her gown. The light from the candles that illuminated the room glowed off the pale skin of her body. “We must find the girl that was lost; she will make an excellent addition to the troops. Send a few of the wolves to track her down and bring her back. Alive,” she ordered as she walked into the tub and submerged herself into the blood.

“Yes mistress,” the women said before leaving the room.

Once they were gone a large view screen appeared on a wall before the bathing Blood Countess. A second later it flickered to life with the image of an old woman.

{{I trust things are going well my precious darling,}} the woman said in a somewhat kind and caring voice.

“Everything is going according to schedule,” she replied taking a cup, dipping it into the blood, and then taking a drink. “We already have several strong young women ready for your loving care. We lost one due to interference, but I have already sent agents to retrieve her as we speak.”

{{Good, good,}} the old woman said with a smile that showed all the wrinkles on her withered face. {{I hope you continue to do your old granny well my dear Mary. These new recruits will become hardened warriors under my teachings and will serve the glory of Darkseid.}}

“For the glory of Darkseid,” the woman known by few as Bloody Mary said as she raised her glass up in a toast to her lord, the great Darkseid.

To Be Continued……

Next Issue: The new Red Hood seems to have his hands full as his investigation leads him to the Female Fury known as Bloody Mary and her cult of followers. Who are some of the other women soon to be turned over to Granny Goodness for training? Well you'll have to tune in next time to find out.

Author's Note: Well this is my first try in the world of fan fiction writing. I tried my best to come up with a story that would work and eventually came up with after watching a few movies and reading some comics. I hope everyone enjoyed the first part of my tale. If you have questions, comments, etc let me know.

Later,

Kage Logan