Lost in Red [Jason Todd]

.03

When night falls, I suit up and load all my ammo before making my way to my next location, given to me by Uche Hamilton last night when it was leaked to Gotham Red Hood was back. Apparently, he's been hiding out in the Narrows. I don't know what for, but I don't care. 

When I reach the location, I count the many men in the room through the window, deciding I wasn't in the mood and I didn't have the patience for stealth. Despite the wounds I got from saving that woman after dealing with Hamilton, I go in after throwing a smoke bomb to take away their sight and make a little easier on me going against 11 men wounded. Shooting Perry in the knee, I make of it that he doesn't get out or get far, yells and the sparks of crossfire piercing the thick gray smoke in the large room. 

When it clears out, blood floods the floorboards with Lenox Perry still somehow managing to try to crawl out with a shattered, bloody leg. 

I feel no remorse for this man, knowing the action he took on her. This was one thing I knew for sure. That, and I hated him with every inch of my body. I grab his hair, tight in my fist, before dragging him by it effortlessly across the bloody floor to the other side of the room and slamming his heavy body against the wall and letting his screeching voice silence with deep breaths of relief. It doesn't last long when I bring his nose to my knee, hard enough to hear a crack and rivers of blood pour from his nose.

I can't even gather the words to say to this man, and the anger in side of me is beginning to get the best of me. I see red looking at him, knowing what he did. What he tried to do. But I needed, I tried to remember that I still needed him alive to know why he did it, who told him to do it, and where they were. But I don't seem to care much about those answers as my fists repeatedly cross his reddening, bloody face, drawing more blood that stains my gloves and hits my mask. 

I stop when I deem it enough, his bloody smile still somehow breaking through. I swear, scum enjoyed getting nearly beat to death nowadays. When I speak, I don't expect it to come out in a burning, low tremble. 

"Why'd you do it?"

He spits blood out his mouth and rolls his eyes back up to me. 

"I've done a lot of things, Red. Gotta be more specific."

"Don't fuck with me, Perry."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Red." He says in a small cough, "Nothing you told me not to do."

"Let's start with you telling people you didn't work for anyone." I suggest small, wanting every detail.

He laughs a little, "That's what all this was for? Killing my men, shooting me in the fucking knee? All this was because I said I didn't work for you?"

"No. I can give to fucks about that, Perry-"

"Then what is this for?-"

"Answer the damn question, Perry." I demand and he spits more blood out his mouth, taking a moment to answer.

"I needed to keep my people in check. If they thought I was the boss, more compliance. If they knew I worked for someone else, less of it. More questioning my authority." He answers, looking up at me in a glare, "Now answer my question. What was all of this for? Because I never broke any of your fucking rules."

He spits bloody at my boot, so I instinctively swing my foot into his jaw in a hard kick, knocking out a tooth and squatting down to his level, grabbing his chin in a death grip and forcing him to look back at me. I remember why I offered my protection instead of killing him; he's tough, hasn't shed one tear.

"W7KY901" I explain, "The license plate of the truck you drove the night of May 24th last year. You fled the scene after crashing that truck into a woman by the name of Brielle Washington's motorcycle. You sent her to the hospital that night, Perry."