The Curious Case of Jason Todd

II

Twenty minutes after passing the loud-mouth wizard off to the police with a broken wand, Robin roared into the Batcave on his motorcycle. He removed his helmet and placed it on the seat of his bike before strutting over to his father. The Batman was sitting in his oversized black leather chair looking over collected evidence from serial bank robbers who had recently hit up some smaller Gotham banks.

"Damian," Batman greeted without turning around.

"Father," Damian replied, "I apprehended the wizard that had turned downtown Gotham into an amusement park. He is in police custody."

Batman did not reply for a few moments as he flipped through crime scene photos. "Is that all?"

Damian gritted his teeth in frustration. Of course Father would sense that he was not entirely truthful. "Red Hood got involved. I became immobilized for a short period of time and the fool felt the need to interfere in my mission."

Batman paused in his research, "His status?"

"Unknown," Damian grumbled, "He was hit by a spell and complained that his chest was 'tingly' before leaving."

"What type of spell Damian?" Batman turned to look directly at him and Damian felt just a bit smaller.

"It was meant for me, some kind of age reversal spell. The wizard was guessing my age before he cast it but was interrupted by Red Hood before he could finish it."

"He cast it regardless and Red Hood took the spell for you," Batman exhaled heavily and closed down the case he had been working on. "Damian, hit the showers, write up your report and then go to bed. I'll be back in half an hour."

Damian scowled as his father turned away from him and headed towards the Batmobile. "Todd can take care of himself," he snapped.

"No, that's the problem," Batman replied as he slid into the Batmobile, "Jason can take care of everyone but himself."

Damian scowled at the place where the car used to be and stomped off towards the showers, purposefully ignoring the glass case with the old Robin costume.

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Batman softly landed on the fire escape outside Jason Todd's kitchen. The lights in the apartment were off and the young man was probably asleep but Batman knew that his former protégé was too prideful to ask for help if he needed it. He used his built in computer to override the Red Hood's security system and then picked the lock on the window. Slipping inside, he scanned the room slowly while listening for sounds in the apartment.

The room was Alfred-approved clean, not a speck of dust visible on any surface. Furthermore, although the room was relatively bare except for the essentials, it was arranged to military standards. The pans hanging off the wall rack were ordered by size and were spaced five inches apart. The kitchen knives were all in their proper slots in the wooden block and there were no dirty dishes lying in the sink. It would come as a surprise to most people, but out of all his sons, Jason was the most organized. On the streets he never had anything more than the clothes on his back but when he possessed personal items, Jason was obsessed with taking care of them. Unlike Dick whose apartment was a disaster zone or Tim who took care of his things but tended to hoard items until his room was cluttered with books and notepads from eight years ago. Perhaps the closest one to Jason's level of order was Damian, although lately the smaller boy had begun collecting wounded animals in his room.

He slipped through the kitchen and past the empty bathroom into the living area. The living room was as neat and ordered as the rest of the apartment and the entire wall of sparkling clean windows looked out over Gotham harbor. A wall divided the living room from Jason's sleeping space and that was where he next checked. The ancient knives, swords, and other sharp weapons were still safely away in their display cases along with Jason's collection of antique handguns. A YiXing clay teapot set was placed on a modern dresser next to a two foot tall Buddha statue that rested on the floor. Batman did not even want to know where Jason managed to collect all these antique weapons. There were some things best left alone.