Jason Todd

Cannon Character:

Full Name:Jason Todd
Codename: Robin (II)
Nickname(s): Jay
Alias(es): Robin (II); Red X
Age: Exact Age Unknown due to being dead for a certain amount of time. He seems to be a bit younger than Dick Grayson, Robin (I). (Late Teens)
Birth date: Unknown
Classification: Human Prodigy/Undead
Affiliation: Anti-Hero


Hair Color: Originally a Reddish Strawberry Blonde. A natural white streak appeared as one of the imperfections and corruptions left by the Lazarus pit. His hair is often dyed black. Currently assume that it is dyed black unless stated otherwise.
Eye Color: Green
Height: Average height for his age.
Weight: Average weight for his age and build. He is tall, trim, and thin.
Other: Jason Todd originally wore hand me downs of Dick Grayson’s old Robin costumes. Later, he was awarded his very own signature Robin costume from Batman. It is mainly red with black secondary colors and yellow trim. It distinctly lacks the greens of his predecessor’s costume.
Jason Todd has a nasty habit of wearing other people's costumes. Especially Dick Grayson's former costumes.
Robin (I) Costume: Jason Todd has a replica Robin outfit that was modeled after the most current and up to date costume that Dick Grayson wore while with the Teen Titans.
Robin (II) Costume: Jason also recreated the distinctly green-less Robin costume that was his, although the original is on display in a memorial to him in the Batcave.
Red X Costume: Jason still owns the Red X costume he stool from Dick Grayson, however Dick managed to recover the utility belt which housed the main power source for the suite as well as many of the main functions of the suit. Despite his resources, Jason has been unable to properly replicate this belt and integrate it into the suit. Although he has tried.
Red Hood Costume(Not Active Yet): Jason's current costume is based of the persona The Joker used before becoming The Joker. Before The Joker used this title and image it was held by many small time criminals and nobodys. However, Jason is the second since The Joker himself took on the persona. Jason's costume utilizes a small red mask similar to the Robin masks, with a red helmet over it. It distinctly lacks a utility belt, unlike his previous costumes. Jason has found the belt to have become too obvious a target for those seeking to disarm him. Instead he wears a brown leather jacket that has most of his tools and gadgets. His gloves and boots also hide spare tools, but that is nothing new.

===POWERS===

Powers: Jason Todd started as a talented brawler and was trained by both Batman and Ra's al Ghul to be a martial artist. However, old habits tend to die hard and he relies on brute strength and bravado more than finesse and skill like his predecessor and mentors do.

Beyond that he is a skilled marksmen and knows how to employ, defend against, and utilize ‘toys’ like grappling hooks, tasers, hidden knives, lock picks, and a myriad of other tools, weapons, and gadgets.

He is also trained to move and amongst the rooftops of urban areas with great skill and daring.

He also posses rudemntary detective skills, however he isn’t anywhere as good as Batman, Robin (I) or even Robin (III).

From his unique experiences, Jason Todd has a great, although perhaps biased, understanding about how the world works and how to manipulate it. Particularly, he is familiar with vigilantism, as well as how the underground crime world works.

===PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE===

Likes:
Justice
Results
Beating the bad guys.
That flying feeling you get when you’re standing out on a rooftop in the cold night’s air, and you’ve just jumped off the roof, right before your line becomes taut and it pulls you into your swing. That flying feeling. That’s nice.
Other people’s costumes.


Dislikes:
Clowns
Dying
Crowbars (receiving end)
Crime
Spinning your wheels around, accomplishing nothing.
Prison Brakes

Strengths:
Sense of Honor
Determined
Passionate

Weaknesses:
Sense of Pride
Obsessive
Emotionally Unstable

Skills:
Sleuthing
Strategy
Fighting. All ranges, unarmed, armed, vs unarmed, vs armed opponents, In disadvantageous situations, in disadvantageous conditions, outnumbered, out gunned, he is trained to both fight and win in all situations.
Criminology
Acrobatics

Equipment:

Jason's current guardian is Talia al Ghul, who through Kord Industries can provide him with all the latest firearms, explosives, gadgets, and support technology he needs. However, as the Red Hood he tends to employ, and rely on for close combat, a specific dagger that resembles a kris and is a replica of one Ra's al Ghul's knives. It is capable of cutting Batman's state of the art cables for grappling, zip lining, and swinging. He also puts his training as Robin into practice by utilizing throwing knives, based off the batarang designs. He frequently dual wields two pistols in addition to his throwing blades. He also employs a various array of firearms, depending on the situation. His Red Hood mask is a red helmet that covers his entire head. It offers decent protection for the head, as well has having several built in features. It has an air re breather built in, as well as offers several visions modes, including motion sensing, thermal vision, and light control. The light control can be set to two extremes. In low light mode, it will collect and magnify as much light as it can to offer a type of night vision. It's advanced enough to take a night time scene and make it as clear as noon. The other extreme, excludes light (basically blinding him) and auto activates if the lenses are exposed to amounts of light that would be damaging to the human eye. The audio systems installed have similar defensive measures built in. They can accurate recreate sound as if the ears were naked, however if decibels exceed a certain limit all sound will be muted to protect the ears and defend against disorientation. Jason employ several other defensive measures, including a wide array of bullet proof and fire retardant materials throughout his many costumes. Through out his many outfits, he hides many auxiliary tools and gadgets. Tasers, lock picks, grappling hooks, throwing knives, detonators, and explosives are all common fare for him.

Habits/Quirks: He tends to wear other people's costumes. Especially Dick Grayson's.

Personality: Jason Todd is human. He has his ups and his downs, like most humans. He is not one way at all times. His mood, condition, and various other factors come into play during his decision making and reactions. However there are certain common themes that tend to prevail. He has a twisted sense of justice, pushing the belief that the ends will justify the means to extreme measures. His mentality is unstable, and sometimes lets his emotions override his logic and dominate his actions. Particularly he has deep anger issues, which he tends to channel into determination often blinding him from and of his own wrong doing and pushing him to accomplish his twisted goals. He is quick to pass judgment, and reluctant to accept it. He is very proud and righteous, seemingly refusing to accept that any of his actions as unjust at times. His dip in the Lazarus pit can arguably be blamed for his unstable and continually deteriorating nature, however this may simply be who he truly is. He was always troubled, from as far back as when he was a simple street orphan. Most likely, there is no one event (or person) that can be blamed for what Jason Todd has become. At the same time, no one involved with him is truly blameless either. What sets him apart from the other Robins and his mentor, is his willingness to kill and utilize other underhanded practices in order to curb and control crime. In his crime fighting philosophy, using lethal force is acceptable if necessary. Something that most vigilantes reserve for actual police officers. As such is the case, Jason will use these firearms much like the criminals he is trying to stop. He believes that the current methods of vigilantes and heroes are ineffective in 'solving' the criminal element. As a hero he is willing to get the job done, at all costs. The risk to his own life is not an issue.

===PERSONAL BACKGROUND===

Family: Willis and Catherine Todd (Biological Parents). Bruce Wane (Mentor/Father Figure). Dick Grayson (Surrogate Brother). Talia al Ghul (Guardian/Mother Figure).
His real family is dead (probably). He died once, too. He wants his surrogate family dead.
Place of Origin: Crime Alley, Gotham City.
Current City: Jump City
History: Jason Todd doesn't remember being a baby. Who does? He was born to a poor couple whole lived in the Crime Alley slums of Gotham City. His mother died when he was very young, from drug overdose. His father was a henchman for Two-Face and a henchman's shelf life is about as good as milk's. One night he simply didn't return. So at an early age Jason found himself on the streets fending for himself.

As a young child he admired the idea of heroes, like most kids his age and one day he saw Robin the Boy Wonder make his appearance. When ever he saw the Bat signal he would immediately start running, although he often ended up no where or just at the Police Station and not even catching a glimpse of the Dark night. He became enthralled with the idea of a kid showing up and becoming the partner of the legendary Dark Knight, but that was a completely different world from the one he was living in. The world he was living in was cruel, hopeless, dirty.

Jason grew up a troubled, more and more so. His friends got into ripping off parked cars under the cover of night. It didn't get much money for them, since dealers ripped them off for their work, but it was something to do and beggars couldn't be choosers. However, this didn't satisfy Jason's aspirations and left him unfulfilled. That's when he decided to combine his frustration with the focus of his unfulfilled aspirations. He decided to try and steal the tires from the Batmobile. His first attempts were utter failures, however since he lived in Crime Alley, he came upon many chances to stumble upon the Batmobile. He began hiding several heavy duty tools, all of which were stolen, in alleys he commonly found Batman to park his car, probably near frequent hot spots. One night he actually succeeded in removing a tire from the fortress of a car. It was victory, one of the first he had taken. It was a cruel, hopeless, and dirty victory, just like his life, but it was a victory nonetheless. However so slight it was in its nature, it only left him starving for more.

Even though it had taken many hours to get the one tire off, he decided to stay. He would not be satisfied until he had all four tires. He managed to get two of the Batmobile's axles on cinder blocks when The Batman arrived. What little hopes he had managed to cling to were quickly dashed, and it a fit of rage and terror he struck his tire iron at The Batman.

Batman easily stopped the attack, without hurting the child. Being restrained so easily only served to further damage the boy's fragile pride. Batman promptly told the boy to go home to his parents. Hurt and feeling the need to lash out, young Jason worked up the courage to lash out again.

“Don't got either!” He replied with defiance in his voice. Batman wasn't phased. He was used to seeing tragic youths with no futures ahead of them, that didn't make it any easier for him to deal with it. He just wasn't surprised. He took a special interest in the child, and decided to place him in an orphanage for troubled youth. That way he could later adopt the child as Bruce Wayne, if he decided to do so. The orphanage turned out to be a front for Ma Gunn's School for Crime. Jason decided to play along with the scheme undercover, while at the same time he picked up many skills like lock picking and car jacking. He also found plenty of opportunity to work on his already polished brawling skills in the school. Eventually he helped break up the gang by turning Batman's attention to it. This prompted Batman's decision to take on the child as a second ward.

Batman looked to Jason and felt something in him. He knew it was different from Dick. Dick had 'talent'. What Jason had was simply rage. He knew that if left alone Jason would grow up to use his rage fueled talents for crime like so many others, but there was another possibility. With Robin with the Teen Titans, Batman decided to take in Jason has his ward with the goals of helping him control his rage and channel it into more constructive means. After six months of training, Jason was aloud to done the cape and mask and join Batman on patrol as Robin. Best day of his life.

Upon hearing news of this, Dick returned to Gotham city to confront his mentor on why he was replaced. Bruce gave him many excuses and reasons for taking on a second ward. At first it was how Jason displayed his potential in skill, dedication, and daring by removing the two tires, then it was how Batman 'needed' a Robin. Eventually it was because Jason needed an outlet for his rage, but Dick believed that Bruce was still holding something back. He demanded to know the 'real' reason he was replaced and eventually he managed to wear Bruce down until he admitted that, although the other explanations were valid, it was also partially because Bruce simply missed Dick.

With that matter settled, the door was opened for Jason and Dick to develop a brotherly relationship. The two robins became close quickly, Dick feeling vulnerable for misjudging Bruce's reasons for 'replacing' him and the subsequent barrage he hammered him with, and Jason simply letting the Robin fan boy in him show a bit too much. At the end of Dick's short stay in Gotham, he gave Jason his current costume saying “You'll grow into it.”

Jason had already been wearing old parts of Dick's previous costumes as he grew into them, but this was a symbol of Dick officially giving Jason his approval.

Finally, Jason was Robin. However, he did not simply live happily ever after and he didn't quite just 'die' either. Jason grew into his own Robin, and many things happened to him along the way. For one, Batman 'forbade' young Jason from using 'Holy...' metaphors at one point (It was in good spirit). As he grew older he further defined himself and his 'Robin'. He swore, smoked, and even defied Batman from time to time. Sometimes he did so to success, bringing Scarecrow into custody all by himself at one point. At other times, he was not so successful. For example, he would often jump the gun, and sometimes mess up routine busts. Other times he would succeed in busts with Batman's aide, but by jumping the gun he'd cut off criminals just as they were about to let slip vital information as to their dealings and associates.

Unlike Dick, whose most defining moments can be described by what super villains 'did' to him, for Jason it was what he 'did' to the criminals he went up against that became the most defining. As Jason grew older his raged continued to fuel his fighting style and quickly became quite a heavy hitter. He often would go too far, but this was a difficult line the define. Batman himself had been accused of going too far by Dick in their relationship. So Jason went reasonably unchecked for some time, and perhaps did not have the best of role models a trouble youth should have. Watching Batman work over criminals, and being taught his in methods of instilling fear in criminals had an affect on Jason. It made him even more resistant and almost immune to Batman's scoldings and harsh lectures. Considering how much a boy like him needed guidance its no wonder he turned out the way he did.

Violence to solve violence, that is what he came to understand. At one point, Batman scolds Jason for beating one criminal close to death. Instead of remaining silent, when Batman asks what Jason would have happened if he 'had' killed the criminal, Jason responds by asking back, “Would've been such a big loss if I had?”

This escalated further until Batman could no longer deny that Jason was out of control. This happened when the dynamic duo encountered a certain criminal named Felipe Garzonas. Garzonas' crimes were heinous, but what made his stand out was that his father's diplomatic connections prevented him from being prosecuted. He even had the audacity to visit the same victims for repeat offenses.

When Jason found one of Garzonas' victims had decided to end things permanently, in fear of a third visit from Garzonas, he headed straight for Garzona's apartment ahead of Batman. Batman arrived just in time to see Garzonas fall 22 stories to his death.

Robin, unconvincingly, responded to Batman's horror and despair by saying, “I guess I spooked him. He slipped.”

Garzonas' father gathered wind of Robin's suspected involvement in his son's death. He kidnaps Commissioner Gorden and instructs Batman to bring Robin to an isolated junkyard. Fearing Jason's involvement decides to go alone, but Jason follows him by stowing away in the Batmobile. In the altercation that follows, Robin manages to save Batman but Gorden is wounded severely and Garzonas senior and all his henchmen end up dead. Finally, instead of lecturing or berating Jason, Batman gives a sermon on consequences as Jason looks over the results of his crime fighting.

Things begin to quite down for Jason Todd, and appeared to be adjusting to his role as Robin after these incidents. However, within was still a need to prove himself and an affinity to violence. While in Europe, Jason seemingly obediently followed Batman as he attempted to thwart one of his greatest nemesis, Ra's al Ghul. The semi immortal, centuries old, criminal mastermind, Ra's al Ghul's plans for conquering Europe were being threatened by the dynamic duo. Ra's al Ghul like to set out long term plans to full fill his needs and play to the strength of his extended life time. As such instead of dealing directly with Batman and Robin he masterminded a diversion to buy time for his plans to mature unhindered. He allied himself with the infamous Joker. He believed that the Joker was familiar enough to catch Batman's attention, as well as formidable enough to hold it. The Joker was meant to seem like he was only committing routine bank heists. However, he underestimated the Joker's madness.

Robin, seeking to prove himself pursued the Joker ahead of Batman. If Jason could deal with the Joker as his petty crimes, then Batman would be free to concentrate on saving Europe from Ra's al Ghul. He so desperately wanted to be able to full fill this role he rushed blindly into danger. The Joker was not one to be used, and not one to be upstaged either. By neither Ra's al Ghul or Robin. He had come to notice Robin's act as well, and his extreme methods. Joker responded to this by darkening his humor and further plunging his act into madness. In the end, he was doing nothing more than beating young Jason with a crowbar. Defiant and filled with rage, Jason tried to resist. However due to his lungs being too severally injured, he could not respond to the Joker's jokes and quips with any of his usual snappy comebacks. So instead he spat his blood onto the Joker's face.

After further beating Robin, the Joker left him alone in the warehouse with a timed explosive. Too, weak to save himself, and Batman arriving too late, Jason Todd died in the resulting explosion.

Dealing with Jason's death was difficult for Batman, as was it for Ra's al Ghul. Ra's al Ghul had killed many before, but always with purpose meaning. The death of this child weighed heavily on his twisted soul. Batman had arrived in Europe as Bruce Wayne, and had to leave as him as well. He concocted a cover story for Robin's death, and turned him into the embassy for customs to handle the official transport of his body. Hearing his worthy adversary was leaving due to this death, Ra's al Ghul lost interest in what was left in his current plans for Europe. He decided to turn his attention to Jason Todd. He would give meaning, purpose to the murder of the boy by combining his death with several other plans he had in motion.

It was easy for him to obtain Jason's Todd from customs, using underhanded means. He replaced the body with a convincing fake and set his dark plans into motion. The Lazarus pit which extended his life was rumored to also have the ability to bring the dead back to life, and Ra's al Ghul had already had plans in motion to test this. Jason Todd was selected as the test subject for this plan.

He was lowered into the waters of the Lazarus pit, and its rejuvenating effects did in fact restore him to life. However, he returned broken and seemingly mindless. After killing Ra's al Ghul's guards, Jason escaped from his mansion by leaping off a cliff while howling like a madman. Ra's al Ghul's men were not able to recover the boy's body and he was suspected to have died again.

In truth, Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Talia al Ghul had found the boy, his body and mind broken. In her confused, frustrated love for Batman, she decided to nurse Jason back to health with the idea of returning him to Batman. She hid him from her father, who had planned to train him as a assassin and replacement for Batman, as a Batman under Ra's al Ghul's control.

Talia's plans had changed during the course of Jason's recovery. He appeared to have no memory, and developed motherly attachments to Talia. Her feelings for the boy wavered and it became unclear even to her whether or not her care for the boy was genuine. In the end, she cared enough for the boy not to return him to Batman and the life that already ended in his untimely demise once before. However even this carnation of Jason Todd was prideful, and prone to violence. He took to the assassin training that he was exposed to under Talia's care, but this was not the life she wanted for the boy.

She told Jason that he could go out into the world and do whatever he wanted. However, he did not know what he wanted. He seemed to posses a great skill for martial arts and many other feats, mostly leftover from his previous life unbeknownst to him.

So he got the idea that he would want to use these skills, but for what? Himself? Or perhaps he should be a hero?

He wavered between what he should do with his life, between villain and hero. On the news he saw coverage of a young hero named Robin, who led the Teen Titans. Their fame was beginning to be world wide now, and for some reason Jason took interest in Robin. He couldn't quite play why at the time. He chalked it up to the fact that they were similar aged, caucasian, males, and both quite skilled in martial arts with no apparent super powers. He said to himself, “If I was going to be a hero, I'd be Robin.”

Upon hearing this Talia became shocked and frightened. A few days later, she told Jason she would be taking a short leave to visit her father. He did not connect the two events and looked forward to enjoying some freedom away from 'mom'.

Later he heard news of the daring thefts pulled off by the infamous Red X, and how he thwarted all of the Teen Titans. Jason noticed from experience and his training under Talia that Red X was using state of the art, highly experimental technology. It was very risky, and he respected Red X's willingness to take those risks for that extra edge. He said to himself, “If I was going to be a villain, I'd be Red X,”

Later still Jason learned that Robin was in fact Red X as he publicly apologized to Jump City and the organizations he had ripped off. Robin vowed to never repeat his mistakes, and admitted publicly that no matter how noble his ideals, it was wrong to commit crime. Then in agreement with the mayor and the police commissioner of Jump City, Robin was sentenced to a stay in jail that would fit his crimes. He was sentenced for all of ten seconds, which he served out in front of the press. It was all a publicity stunt and formality, just so Robin could go on believing he was truly just and noble.

For some reasons, Jason found this unacceptable. He began having flash backs of his past life, but could not make sense of them. What he remembered were strong feelings of conflict, concerning Justice and guilt. He remembered feeling so righteous, and then being forced to feel so much guilt. It ate away at him. He could not accept these feelings. He didn't quite understand where they were coming from, but he reasoned that it must have had something to do with Red X and Robin.

He went over the Red X concept in his head, over and over. Red X allowed a hero to get closer to villains by becoming one of them. You could do so much good as Red X, so why? Why had Robin given it up? When lives are at stake, shouldn't you do anything you can in your power to save them? What's hurt if a few disks are stolen? They can be returned later. They can be replaced. In the name of Justice, they could even be sacrificed right?

It was then that Jason decided what he wanted to do with all his talents and skills. He decided to brake into Titan's tower and steal the Red X suit. He believed that Red X was necessary. So began Jason's short stint as Red X. He adopted the persona of 'simple thief', as his (rather weak) alibi for needing the suit and convinced everyone, even the Teen Titans and especially Robin of this fact. Simple theft for profit, with a dangerous, experimental super suit. His acting was convincing enough, and people were all to ready to believe in him. He wouldn't the first obviously, as crazy as that sounds. Doctor Light is similar in this vein, and being so similar he could use this Red X to get close to criminals.

He continued to build up his reputation as a thief, while secretly selling out criminals on the side. However, this became increasingly difficult as the more he put on the Red X mask, the more he would have nightmares. In his dreams he was robin. Sometimes it was good. Often it was not. He often dreamed of man, a fat man with gaudy jewelery. He wore a purple bathrobe and looked frightened. Jason always dreamed that he was screaming and threatening the man. He was saying things, asking questions. He could never quite remember what it was he was saying, but he could clearly remember the feeling, the emotion strongly driving him. It was anger, it was despair, it was righteous, it was unbridled Justice.

But then something goes wrong. He can never remember what exactly it is, but something always goes wrong, and then all that white hot fury is gone. It disappears as he watches the man fall, and fall, and fall, and then finally disappear out of sight. In place of righteous fury, all that's left is guilt and horror. So bad he wants to cry, but for some reason he doesn't. He can't. He doesn't know why, but he just can't let himself do this in his dreams. When he questions why he can't let himself do this, he always feels this large dark shadow with pointed ears and empty white eyes grow over him. It grows so large that it eventually envelops and consumes him. Then nothing. The dream doesn't end there, it usually goes on, but there's nothing. No more flashes of images, no more intense feelings, nothing. Just sleep.

Then he wakes up, feeling more tired than when he lied down.

The nightmares continue to haunt him, even as his lack X-Ore and the loss of his Red X utility belt, forces him to retire the Red X mantle.

Forced to retire, Jason is once again lost, but not as much as before. The Red X idea was not terribly successful. The major players avoided him, because they knew of Red X's original being Robin. Most of those he did catch ended up escaping from jail just like any other superhero bust. However in his time as Red X he began to think of other new and innovative ideas for vigilantism. He thought about how heroes attracted attention, and how if positive enough it could create enough political influence to start cleaning up corruption. He thought about how he would probably need a certain 'look' to attract positive attention. A sidekick would also make him seem more friendly and positive. Maybe a young, all-American-justice-loving girl with a cheery attitude? Something to soften his image. He began making plans like this and others.

However, no matter which plans he came up with he always came back to the idea that any criminal he caught, would eventually, one way or another, make their way back onto the streets.

The only real way to stop crime like that... was to kill them, but he couldn't do that. Could he?

He decides to reconnect with Talia for guidance, who has been avoiding him for all this time. Although she responded to his communications from time to time, she continued to remain distant. Lonely, lost and confused, he began wondering what his next move would make.

He then turned his attention to the distinct absence of Robin and the original Teen Titian in Jump City. Once again, questioning this absence of a needed and respected figure and recognizing his own ability to fill this role, Jason Todd decided to take up the Robin mantle. He used Talia's resources to construct duplicate costume, with out her knowledge. When he donned the cape and mask for the first time, he felt a pain. It was deeper than any pain he had ever felt in this lifetime, but it was a familiar pain.

When he tried to remember where he had felt this feeling before, he remembered a laughing man. He remembered the pain. He remembered the guilt. He remembered the shame. He remembered too much. Becoming Robin once again had reawaken memories that had been lying dormant within Jason's mind.

He remembered that he had died. He remembered his old ideals and how right he felt and how wrong everyone made him feel.

That's when he realized that Jump City did need a Robin, but not just any Robin. It needed a Robin that could get things done. A Robin that would put away creeps like Control Freak, Dr. Light, and all the rest. A Robin that would put them away, for good.

Sample RP

Robin stepped out onto the ledge of the cold rooftop, overlooking his city. It had been ages since he had felt this. It had been a lifetime since he had. He pulled out a grappling launcher that was small and convenient for carry and concealment. It was barely any larger than his fist and it's anchor was shaped like a small red bird. He pointed out, and let out a breath.

You could fall twenty two stories, or you could slip in the bath tub. Either way you'd end up dead. Fear kept you aware, on edge, but if you let it get in your way, then it obscured its purpose, it lost its place.

The anchor was launched and sent flying away with a distinctly familiar sound. It was not quite as loud as a bang, not quite as quiet as a click. It was something entirely its own and he had no word to describe it. Rather then relying on pure instinct and fear, what you needed was to rely on a plan. Nothing made this easier than knowing what was going to happen. The only way to know, was to experience it yourself and become familiar with it.

He remembered how the man in black looked down at him and smiled the first time. How he pushed him off the roof with the anchor already in place some where. It was frightening... thrilling. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. After that he had spent the majority of an entire lifetime doing this.

He stepped off the roof before the anchor found its mark. He knew that his aim was true, he knew from experience and training. He took confidence in that training and he let gravity take him, but just for those first few seconds.

After the anchor hit its mark and found its place, gravity had him for just bit longer. As the cable began to run out of slack it became taut. It was specially designed to absorb the impact, so his arms and fingers would be torn from their sockets, and when it had, Robin's wings had been spread.

He swung through the brisk night's air, and the lowest point of his swing he could feel gravity's full protest at his defiance, but he paid it little mind. That feeling wasn't what he was after. No. That came at the apex of his swing, where his line threw him up into the air and for a moment, just a moment, he was weightless. He hung there in the air, staring up at the moon and for that moment alone, he was flying. Really flying. He felt his eyes well up, and he told himself it was because they were not used to the wind, and only for that reason. Before Gravity could claim him back again, he had began retracting his line, and at the same had already aimed a second anchor at a new mark to being his next swing.