"What was he like?" asked Scootaloo, sitting on her haunches as she listened.
"Well, he was rebellious. He was fearless, selfless, but also reckless." Bruce explained.
"How'd you meet him?" the orange filly asked.
"Well, one night I was finished with my patrol, so I went back to the Batmobile. When I arrived I saw the tires were removed." he heard a snort emerge from the filly as she covered her mouth and smiled at her.
Batman was shocked at the sight he saw. His eyes were the size of dinner plates and his mouth hung open. Who did this? Who in the world took the tires off the Batmobile? Although he quickly got over his shock as he remembered That these tires were new and he hadn't finished redesigning the hubcaps, which would leave the lug nuts exposed.
Just then, he heard whistling that sounded like it was coming from the corner at the end of the alley. A figure stepped into the alley carrying some kind of bar over his shoulder. Batman got a good look at this person, he was a kid who looked as if he was twelve or thirteen. He had short black hair and carried a lug wrench over his shoulder. He immediately froze in place and silenced his whistling as he saw the dark knight before him.
Batman crossed his arms as he held a stoic look into the kid's eyes that would give him nightmares tonight.
"Care to explain?"
The kid was frozen as he averted his eyes at the lug wrench he was holding and back to Batman. He swallowed and smiled, trying his best to look innocent, but Batman wasn't buying it. The kid's smile dissapeared as he glanced at the tireless Batmobile and back to the vigilante.
"This is not what it looks like." the kid said.
Batman glanced at the wrench in the kid's hand, then back at the Batmobile, then back at the kid. "Judging by the looks of things this is what it looks like."
The kid knew he couldn't convince him otherwise, so he came up with what he'd call an emergency method. He took in a deep breath before exhaling. "Look." he looked like he was about to explain something, but to Batman's surprise, he was met with the metal wrench to the face as he heard what sounded like footsteps in a fast motion.
The dark knight recovered from his hit to the face as he saw the kid run off out of the alley. If this kid was an adult criminal, he would expect him to fight back, but this was a kid. Normally a kid would just run out of fear, but this kid wasn't afraid to even fight back.
Batman wasted no time as he reached for his grapple gun and quickly made his way to a nearby rooftop. He ran to the edge to see The direction the kid was running and followed him. After no more than two minutes, did he see the kid run into a building. Batman got a good look at the building as it appeared to be run down with the marks that appeared from how old this building was and from nobody taking care of it, as well as the windows covered with wooden planks to prevent anyone from breaking in.
Batman spread his cape as he jumped off the building, allowing him to glide to the porch at the front of the building before entering. The place was a wreck; there were many holes in the walls and a few cracks. He also noticed a bird's nest resting on top of a stand where a pant is supposed to be, as well as a few rats run across the floor in front of him.
Why would the boy run into this place? He was probably desperate to get away from the bat that he felt that this building was the safest place for him. Batman thought he'd save his conclusions for later as he squinted his eyes shut before opening them to turn on his detective vision. The footprints from the boy were now visible on the floor and were glowing a bright yellow.
Batman followed the footprints to a doorway, well at least it's still considered a doorway even with the door missing. The detective made his way through the doorway to find the footprints going up a series of stairs, so he followed. It wasn't long until he finally reached the door where the footprints ended, or at least expanded as he opened the door to find more footprints heading into a hallway with a series of doors.
Judging by the looks of things, Batman could tell that this was an apartment and was abandoned for years by the looks of it. He followed the the trail of footprints until it ended at an old door as he opened it slowly emitting a loud creek. He stepped into the filthey apartment and noticed his tires in the corner. He turned off his detective vision as he began to take note of his surroundings.
The room was absolutely filthy, trash was laid out onto the floor, there was a red couch with a few tears and resting on top of it was a blanket and a pillow as if someone slept here. The Batman heard a creek coming from the other door as the kid he was chasing stepped out, holding the same lug wrench he used to remove the tires in one hand as if he was using it as a weapon. He must've heard the loud creek and grabbed whatever he can use to defend himself.
"You weren't supposed to follow me." said the boy.
"But I did." Batman crossed his arms. He got another good look around the place before jumping to a sad conclusion "Do you live here?" he kept his expression stoic, yet he still felt sadness for the boy.
The boy nodded, still holding the lug wrench.
"Where are your parents?"
The boy's expression saddened, but quickly changed to stoic "They're nowhere."
"What do you mean 'nowhere'?"
The boy lowered his weapon as he deeply inhaled then exhaled "My mom died when I was six and my drunk ass dad left a year ago."
Batman felt his arms get heavy as they lowered "You've been here by yourself?"
The boy slowly nodded. Poor kid, he had no mother and the only person left who was supposed to look after him left.
The boy sighed "Look, just take the tires back, do what you gotta do, just don't call the cops."
Batman looked at the tires and crossed his arms again as he looked back at the boy "I won't call the police, but you're gonna be the one to put the tires back."
"What?" exclaimed the boy "But I..." he tried to protest, but couldn't find anything to use in speech "Fine."
The two made their way back to the Batmobile as the boy started to get to work on putting the tires back on. Batman stood there with his arms crossed, making sure he still kept doing his work and won't run off. After a while, he finally got done.
"There," he wiped some sweat from his forehead "Hubcaps are back on, tires are put back into their place and that's that. Can I go now?"
Batman bent down and took a look at his tires. Everything seemed fine as he stood back up and looked at the boy.
"That depends," Batman said "do you even want to go back?"
The boy opened his mouth to answer, but paused as he averted his eyes in thought. Should he even go back to that apartment? Should he go back to pissing in a bucket and dealing with rats that would crawl into his place from time to time?
"Well, well." They heard a gruff voice speak as the boy turned around and looked at the man in fear, for he recognized him.
There stood five men with their arms crossed and tauntingly smirking at the kid. The man in the middle was their leader as he wore a shiny black leather jacket and spiked collar around his neck. He also had a mohawk atop of his head and a white skull on his shirt.
"Oh crap." the boy muttered as he recognized these men as the East Side Skulls, A gang that he's had several run-ins with.
The leader chuckled "What a coincidence runnin' into you again, Jasey."
The kid clenched his teeth; he hated that stupid nickname.
A scrawny looking member of the group jumped back as he noticed the Batman. "Holy crap! It's the bat!"
The other gang members noticed the man as well as they all took a step back, except for their leader for he stood his ground. He looked back at his men "Really, guys? You're that scared of this guy?"
The boy looked back at Batman for a moment before realizing that he shouldn't have to worry about these guys hurting him as he looked back at them smirking and his arms crossed. "Oh yeah, you guys should be scared."
"Yeah, well I'm not." the leader said.
"Are you kiddin' man?" squeaked the scrawny one "This is the same guy who takes down people in the Falcone mob!"
The leader shrugged "Ah, he's just a guy in a costume! Clearly he doesn't stand a chance against us."
Batman stepped forward; his face stoic, yet menacing underneath the mask "I'm giving you one chance to leave now before things get worse for you." his voice slow and venomous.
The man chuckled "Oh yeah? I bet I can take you on!"
Batman felt like face palming, for this guy was clearly dumb and even though he was against killing, he'd say it was like this man was trying to get himself killed.
"Dude, I think you should step back." one of the gang members warned.
The leader smirked "Pfft, I got this."
Without warning, he brought his fist to Batman's face. Well, he would have if Batman didn't catch it just when it was a quarter away from his chin. Before the guy could do anything, he felt his hand get twisted and make a haunting crunching sound as he yelled at the sharp pain he felt in his wrist, which was cut silent as he felt a fist make a rough impact with his face as he fell to the ground on his back.
"Screw this! I'm gettin' outta here!" squeaked the scrawny man as he ran out of the alley to God only knows where as the others followed.
The gang leader groaned as he felt a liquid trickle down his nose. He wiped a hand under it as he looked to see that it was red. He looked back up at the Batman, but this time in fear.
"Run." The detective said.
The man had no hesitation of quickly getting up and running out of the alley while holding onto his broken hand.
"Yeah, you pussies better run!" The boy yelled. "Don't you ever come back here and mess with me!" he pointed a thumb to his chest. He turned around and beamed at the vigilante before him "That was awesome! I'm not gonna lie, dude, but you were being so badass!"
"Language," Batman warned.
The boy frowned as he crossed his arms "I was wrong, you're a real buzz kill."
The windows to the Batmobile slid open as Batman hopped in. Just as he was starting the car, he took one last look at the boy who stood their with his arms crossed waiting for him to leave. This boy didn't seem to be safe here. He had no parents to be there for him. He was living under poor conditions. He was dealing with street criminals that would come to bully him once in a while.
Batman would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't worried. Who knows how long this kid would last like this? What if that gang came back and did worse to him this time? What if other criminals were to happen across him and-no! He would not let anything terrible happen to this boy. No kid deserved to live like this. No kid should ever live like this.
"Ummm..." the kid said "aren't you gonna go now?"
Batman was brought back into focus as he looked at the kid again with a straight face "Get in."
The boy seemed taken aback by this as he lowered his arms "What?"
"I said 'get in'." Batman repeated.
All the kid could ever do at this moment was stare in confusion before chuckling "Really? You really want a kid like me" he pointed a thumb to his chest "to get in a car with you? Yeah, this doesn't seem suspicious."
"Look, kid" Batman said "I only want you to get in this car, because I want to give you something that no one has ever given you before."
"And what's that?" the boy rested both his hands on his waist, his eyebrow raised.
"A chance." Batman answered "A chance for a better life. A chance for a better future. And a chance to be put in the proper care kids your age should be placed under."
The boy averted his eyes in thought before shrugging "Am well, it's better than living in that shi..." the boy paused as he saw the intimidating warning glare from the bat "...cruddy apartment." he rubbed the back of his head as he smiled innocently.
He made his way over to the Batmobile before jumping into the passenger seat as he marveled at the teck before him. The window slid closed as the engine roared.
"By the way," Batman said "I never got your name."
The boy shrugged "Those stupid guys like to call me 'Jasey'." he said "But my real name's Jason. Jason Todd."
"...and that's how I met him." Bruce said as he was finishing up the story "After that, I took him home and adopted him as my ward. It wasn't long 'till he took up the mantle as Robin."
"What happened to him?" Scootaloo asked.
Bruce was afraid of telling her about this part, but she had to know someday. He inhaled for what felt like an eternity before answering the filly's question "He...he died."
Scootaloo's face changed to one of shock and sadness at the shocking news. Her eyes were wide as dinner plates and her mouth hung open.
Bruce paused before going forward "When he died, I was broken. I wasn't myself; there were numerous occasions of when I would fight a criminal harder than needed and I would often take my anger out at others around me." he sighed "Then I was approached by Tim. He saw how I was acting and warned me that there might come a time where I would...kill someone."
Scootaloo listened to the story with a worried and saddened look as she felt for this man.
"He suggested he'd become Robin. At first, I objected to it, because I was afraid of losing another partner. But then he was able to convince me that I needed a partner to keep myself under control, so I let him take on the mantle."
After that story, the two just sat there, neither finding themselves able to speak up. It was like that for what felt like a century, until finally Scootaloo got up from her spot and approached Bruce, the sound of her hooves hitting the dirt as she walked around the fire place.
She made her way to Bruce's right and just sat down next to him. Bruce then felt her wrap both her hooves around him as she rested her head on his chest.
"I'm sorry about your loss."
Bruce paused for a moment before wrapping his arm around the filly, pulling her closer.
"Thank you." was all he could say.
The two were now lying comfortably on the ground in their sleeping bags under the stars of the night sky. Their heads resting on their pillows and Scootaloo wearing her sweatshirt.
"So, tell me" Scootaloo said "is there always a good view like this whenever you're on rooftops?"
"Depends on how you look at it." Bruce said "I think the city is filthy with all the crime."
"I uh, meant the sky." Scootaloo corrected.
"Oh, yes." Bruce realized "It's nice, but not as this."
Scootaloo chuckled "You know, I think I'm going to like this world." she inhaled before exhaling "If only I could see more of it." she muttered.
Bruce thought back to when he told her about Jason. He's had many failures before in the past, but losing him was his most greatest failure of them all, as well as many to come. Although, there was something else about Jason he'd hoped Scootaloo would never find out. Something that he hopes will stay hidden. But that's another story.