Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Fifty-One

Like a kicked puppy, the child whined, curled in to itself, attempting to cast the world and the pain away. With hair so stained Jason couldn't tell it's colour, and skin stretched over bones and poking through the thin shirt it wore. The child evidently hadn't witnessed the blessings of life, nor the mercies for that matter.

In the murkiest depths of the ocean of Jason's memories, a single image swam  to the rippling surface. Struggling against the red-masked sharks attempting to devour it (a metaphor for the feeling of numbness that Jason forced upon himself), the memory broke through the water, flying in to his mind.

A muddy-faced, tattered, scrawny little thing. Unfed, unhoused, unwanted. Yet still grinning cheekily as he removed the hubcaps of the great hero's car. At times, retreating to an unresponsive shell due to the lack of nutrition he faced. 

There, curled at his feet, was a reflection of his younger self. Before Batman- Bruce. Before death. Before all the anger. Underneath all that...life...lay a small, quivering child, shaking like a leaf in the breeze with cold and hunger.

As though a spirit had guided his hands, The Redhood's disguise clattered on the floor. Viewing the child with his bare eyes, Jason brushed the hair away from the child's face, retracting his hand like it had been shocked.

Gently as could be, Jason spoke, "It's...it's alright.", sighing, he reached out, taking all the care he could muster in to a single movement, and stood, cradling the child in his bloodstained arms.

"I get it.", he murmured. "Don't worry...I know..."

Against his chest, the boy made no sound other than the light sniffling, and opened his watery, brown eyes.

******

"In simple terms, the Joker has returned and appeared to have -once again- a vendetta against Quinn. No information has been obtained to aid in understanding the motive behind his actions.", Batman trailed his steely, calculating gaze over the Justice League. "No issues besides that situation and regular petty theft."

Per usual, the JLA congregated in the Hall of Justice, informing the rest of the team about the affairs of the regions under their control. To the surprise of none, Aquaman had been a no-show ('selfish bastard!', Hal thought, 'we have to be here, why doesn't he?!') and Shazam hadn't been seen in months, though most of the Justice League were in on his little secret.

Diana nudged Barry in to wakefulness, prompting a slurred, "Oh! Huh-um... 's it my turn now?...M'kay...", he yawned, stretching out his arms and legs like a cat, sprawled over his designated chair around the table.

Eyes narrowing, the hard set of Batman's mouth became even more rigid (if that were possible) as he threw eye-daggers at the Flash. Caught between snickering or sighing at the exchange, Clark buried his face in his hands, a precise imitation of his son caught in a war of verbal barbs between Robin and Raven.

Report upon report passed through the ears of the Leaguers, as menial as usual with nothing of extreme significance being told- though Cyborg did relate one incident wherein a hybrid hippopotamus-ostrich attempted to rob a corner shop (though it was suspected that he did so to simply lighten the flat mood, and, to his credit, there were a few snickers).

"The lab accident has been safely detained.", Vic hid a smirk. "I'm glad to say that no other incidents of this nature are suspected to occur in the near future."