Gun Vs. Arrows, Agian (Red Hood)

[Speedy]

Players: Speedy and Red Hood
Location(s): Warehouse District of Star City
Plot Summary: Mia thwarts a drug deal. Of course, she ends up walking into a deal set up by a certain person whose agenda is unknown to her.

Mia sighed as she crouched on a rooftop of an abandoned building in Star. There were plans to tear it down and build something else in its place soon. The young archer thought it was a bit sad. She was kind of fond of this building. It gave her a good vantage point of the scummy warehouses of the city.

A lot of crummy stuff happened in the warehouse district of Star City. Speedy would know. She had taken down countless drug dealers, smugglers, and the like here. Then, there were her experiences as Mia Dearden involving the warehouse district. Those memories, well, none of them were pleasant. That was putting it nicely too. That did not matter though. There was movement going on.

Speedy was trained to spot movement from a far distance. So, the binoculars helped with the fact that she was a hawk. That did not hinder her much though. The things were collapsible. Through the lenses’ magnification, Mia was able to easily see that there were at least five men gathering. Three standing outside a warehouse, obviously armed. They had a large suitcase with them. Not the high quality kind either. This screamed drug deal to the black and yellow clad archer.

The other two men were headed towards the warehouse. They also had a bag, although theirs was a duffel bag. That poor piece of canvas was filled to capacity it seemed. IT was either money to trade for drugs, or weapons of some kind. Weapons seemed to have their own spot as a form of currency. Their value had increased a bit since the destruction of Star City though.

Mia pulled a zip line arrow out from her quiver. The shot was simple to make. She could have made it in her sleep by now. As the arrow hit its target of the odd ventilation shaft coming out from a warehouse nearby the one where the deal was going down, Mia smirked. She easily slid down the line, holding onto her bow and landing on the roof silently. The line disconnected from the arrow’s tip and returned back to her. The arrow’s shaft went back in her quiver as she scoped out the situation.

This seems far too easy. Only five guys when there is a bag that big full of either guns or money and then a suitcase full or either drugs or guns? That’s not normal.[/b]

Mia watched as the men started to talk. The one man holding the duffel bag slowly opened it to show the cash. There was a lot of cash in that poor bag. One of the men from the warehouse stepped forward and was obviously checking to make sure the bills were real. Then, the suitcase was opened. A plastic bag was pulled out of the suitcase filled with pills.

Great, another drug in pill form. Because that is totally just what Star needs going around right now. Might as well nip this in the bud.][/b] Mia thought to herself. She knew where those drugs would be heading. They would be getting tested out by dealers selling to pimps who would give them to their girls. Then, after that quick test was run, off to the clubs and streets of Star City. There was no way she was actually going to even let that suitcase or duffel bag leave her sight until they were properly disposed of.

She took a few arrows from her quiver and easily pinned the plastic bag of pills to the adjacent warehouse. Then, it was a simple matter of taking out the armed men. Her beloved powder puff arrow. Ollie called it a smoke screen arrow. Mia called it a powder puff, because that was totally what the tip resembled. Hers were a pretty golden color. As it hit whatever target, it released a large amount of smoke. Mia made hers to have a dye packet in it that would explode on impact and would stay on its target. The next two arrows pinned the two men holding the duffel bag of cash to the warehouse wall as well. Mia smiled as she saw the dye packet get all over the man who held the small bag of pills.

Pink is totally not his color. Maybe I should add glitter in there, just to piss them off even more.[/b] Mia thought to herself.

After the smoke was released, Speedy found it fairly easy to get from the roof down to the ground. A few well placed kicks to the back of the head of the armed men rendered them unconscious. She laughed as the men pinned to the wall looked at her while she grabbed the small bag of pills.

”Alright fellas, take two,”[/b] She whacked them upside the head as to knock them out as well, just for good measure. ”And then you can all call your lawyers in the morning.”[/b]

Removing the guns and placing them in one of the two bags was easy enough. She had unloaded the magazines from the handguns first. Those went in her belt. Like she would allow access to loaded guns.

The smoke started to clear and there was something odd about this whole thing. That was too much cash and far too many pills for such a small deal. Speedy pulled a normal sharp arrow from her quiver and had it notched as she looked around. She knew there was someone watching her. She had known someone was watching the whole time. Now, all she needed to do was find out who it was.

”Alrighty then, now, where’s Waldo?”[/b]

[Red Hood]

Red Hood was parked on a rooftop, partially encased in shadow as he played a part that was yet to be clear. He stood on a roof with one leg propped up on the rised ledge, that knee propping up an elbow with carried the hand that carried binoculars which Jason was currently looking through. A swift gust rushed by and caught his dark jacket fluttering it a bit, it sounded not too unlike bat wings. Red Hood didn't spend too much time in Star City, he couldn't really say that he liked the place. Star was sort of like Gotham lite. The sort of crime this place saw was much more organized crime and white collar crime - Gotham was just about everything under the sun.

Drug deals went down on the regular in Star City though, yet somehow the place managed to maintain a pretty clean image compared to Gotham. But that was neither here nor there; Jason was in town on business. And as the guys making the drug trade down below would tell you, business was good. If you looked closely, just squinting and peering out far enough into the darkness of the night, you would be able to catch the slim figure of a hero sliding in onto the scene. One of the resident arrows no doubt. Jason didn't get the whole archery thing. He knew it wasn't particularly easy and that arrows were quite dangerous if not effective, but.....he glanced down at the pistol hanging from his hip. Why? Red Hood pondered it over and decided it'd be best to ask the archer.

Into the darkness he leaped and quickly Red Hood made his way for the warehouse where the party seemed to be getting under way. He slinked in quiet as humanly possible, a side entrance that neither the dealers or Speedy used, and melded into the dark recesses. Arrows were great long distance weapons and Mia certainly knew what she was doing with them. The fight wasn't much like any one that Jason would have gotten into but Speedy made quick work of the dealers with a few well placed kicks and punches. Jason quietly judged from the sidelines.

The whole rumble was over now though and instead of running off on her merry way like a good little quasi sidekick, seemingly contemplating things. Then, to Jason's surprise, the girl notched an arrow. For a moment the arrow was pointed directly at Jason but as she looked around for a target the arrow drifted away from him. Red Hood used that moment to quickdraw his gun and fire a shot. He then ran to the end of the shadows' horizontal run and fired another two shots at Speedy before charging at her.

[Speedy]

Mia almost was hit by the bullet coming towards her as she looked for whoever was watching her. She jumped a tiny bit and managed to miss two other bullets that were headed for her. She looked towards where the evil little lead projectiles had come from. There, hurtling towards her, was the Red Hood. He was also known as Jason Todd.

”You have got to be kidding me. Again?”[/b]

She looked at the bag of money and suitcase full of drugs. There was no way she could just leave them there. Not with the five idiot dealers and buyers there. Luckily, she had a new toy to assist her with that. She pulled two small devices from a compartment on her belt and stuck them to the bags. They would send a signal to police radios and would transmit the coordinates. New technology was so much fun.

Speedy stuffed the small plastic bag of pills into a pouch on her thigh. She would need to analyze those later. The man coming towards her was still larger then her. He was also still taller then her too. The Red Hood’s love for guns had not seemed to have gone away at all. Nope, not a single bit.

The blonde sighed as she pushed herself off of one of the unconscious guy’s shoulders, and then the suitcase to her give her a height advantage. She managed to get a solid kick to Jason’s face, well, his helmet anyways. Her right leg managed to land on his shoulder, which she used to push off of for another jump. She grabbed the edge of the rooftop and pulled herself up onto it looking down on the older man.

”We really need to stop meeting like this. People might start to think you like me or something. Didn’t we already have this fight? I think it ended up in my high school getting blown up. “[/b]

Witty banter coming from the mouth of Mia Dearden. That was totally normal. Actually, it was most likely the most normal part of Mia right now, her big mouth. It made a nice distraction for her to use while pulling some arrows out and shooting the gun out of his hand. She correctly recalled him having a backup on an ankle holster, which was shot off by another arrow. Of course, he most likely had knives. Who knew what was in that jacket of his? It was like Mary Poppin’s bag. Only a leather jacket that held weapons and tools that could be used against her. She now really wanted that jacket.

Another arrow flew at his helmet. This one was a beloved favorite of Ollie’s that she had adapted to fit better into her quiver. It was a boxing glove arrow which hit him straight on. Too bad he had shot at her while on the roof and a bullet hit her shoulder, lodging itself into the bone.

”F***! Didn’t the Bat teach you manners? Or do those go away when you come back from the dead?”[/b]

That hurt. It was not like she hadn’t been shot before. She couldn’t afford to be out of commission as Speedy though. Connor was already taking on a lot with her balancing school and patrols. This was really the last thing she needed. Seeing him get smacked in the face with the boxing glove made her feel a bit better though.

The female archer got a shot at his back and she took it. She jumped off the rooftop and down onto Red Hood’s back before rolling into a softer landing. She managed to kick away his guns and pulled an arrow and pointed it at him.

She wasn’t 17 anymore. She had grown two inches and filled out a bit more in the past two years. The new Speedy uniform fit a lot better then the old one too. She wasn’t being cocky, just confident. She had fought him before and gotten out. She could do better now, and she was.

”Alright, tell me what you are here for and I might not have you take an arrow to the knee for the bullet in my shoulder. I might even let you carry one of the bags to the police station.”[/b]

The Red Hood did not make many appearances in Star City. There had to be something big and important here to have him come. It was obvious that he did not care at all for the place. So, what was it that brought him here?

[Red Hood]

Jason had to fight back the grin to tried pushing its way onto his face. His bullet only just narrowly missed Speedy, but that was exactly what it was supposed to do. His first two were designed to just whiz past Speedy and startle her, letting her know how close she was to getting clipped by one of those bullets. The last shot actually struck her right in the shoulder where Jason had aimed. That had been a test. Unlike the first shots that were clever scares that were meant to miss the target completely, the last round was shot so that it could strike Mia's shoulder but only if she wasn't quick enough to avoid it. She wasn't.

She failed test number one.

Her foot flew out at him and struck Jason's helmet, no damage at all was dealt as the hood he wore was designed to withstand much stronger blows than a simple kick. Quickly Jason's arms shut up so that they could ensnare Speedy in a swift vice but the archer had already kicked off of Red Hood's shoulder and basically used him as a stepping stone to get up into the rafters. Jason turned and backed up slightly to get a look up above for where Mia would be going. "Consider this round two then. No explosives this time though. You're welcome." He spoke more teasingly than actual menace or threats. Jason wasn't the bad guy, he didn't want to hurt the Green Arrow sidekick...too badly.

An arrow came out of the darkness of the rafters and the small snub at Jason's ankle was shot off. He stepped back as the holster was ripped away from his leg, thankfully Speedy hadn't taken the shot to incapacitate. She probably should have though. Jason then shot up at the ceiling just to spook her, his bullet embedding in wood panel. When the next arrow came a cartoonish boxing glove popped out of the arrowhead. Jason grinned beneath his hood and stepped forward with a lurch, headbutting the arrow away from him. There was a lot of force and speed behind that glove but the Red Hood withstood the challenge.

Manners? Jason scoffed. "I didn't think you were a kid anymore. You still think this is dressup? Pretend cops and robbers? I'm coming after you Speedy, just like any criminal would. And guess what," Jason turned slowly checking the ceiling to see where Mia was currently hiding. "They don't have any manners." Speedy wore a cape and as anyone with ears would tell you; capes make noise. When the girl jumped from the rafters Jason heard her flight through the air. He spun around with great speed and leaned into her as she collided with him. His arms snapped shut around her like a trap and the flipped over upon striking the floor of the warehouse. On the floor Mia was on top and Jason was on bottom. If she could see through his mask she'd see how much he was enjoying the night so far.

"Well, you see," He spoke slowly, but his hands worked swiftly. A hidden knife slipped into his hand and Jason quickly slashed and severed the bottom of the drawstring on Speedy's bow. Jason then swatted the bow from her hands and kicked her off of him before rolling backwards to get up on his feet. "I set this whole meeting up. See, GA's been outta country for a while, Canary's holed up in Gotham now, and Roy's running around on some kinda coked out binge. And since you don't have anyone to babysit anymore," He paused, letting the sting sink in. "I figured you'd be the one to show up tonight."

[Speedy]

Mia let out a small yelp as the arms of the Red Hood snapped around her and dragged down onto the floor, on top of him. She had been in this position many times before. However, she normally put herself into it. Not to mention, she was not normally fighting for her own life against a crime lord from Gotham trained by the goddamn Batman, She couldn’t help but smirk a bit.

”Never figured you to like having the girl on top. I would have guessed you were into being the dominant one and liked kinkier stuff, like tying people up. Although, that costs extra.”[/b]

As soon as Mia felt the bowstring on her bow go limp, she growled at Jason. Then, he just lightly whacked it away, like he was a cat and it was a toy he was not interested in anymore. She was glad she had taken this opportunity to feel the older man up. It wasn’t in the creepy “I want to sleep with you” way. No, she was feeling the body armor he wore and was finding its weak spots and where it did not cover. Mia rolled back off of him and held got onto her feet. She pulled a knife from it’s holster in her boot on her calf.

It was bad enough he had made her bow useless to her now for shooting arrows. Now, he made it obvious he was gunning for her. Why the hell would he be doing that? Then, the sting of what the gun toting guy was saying. She did not let her facial expression change at all. She kept it in its battle face mode. She could not let him see how guilty or shocked she was.

It should not have surprised her that Roy would go back to using drugs, Most likely, he was using heroin again. That was her fault too. Then, he had to bring up Lian. That sweet little girl could not rest in peace in her memory when people kept bringing her up like this. Mia knew that Jason was doing this to get a rise out of her. To get her off guard, and she was not going to let it work.

The blonde archer stood, ready to fight hand to hand. She knew running at him would get her nowhere fast. It most likely would get her either killed or nearly killed. The fact that she was wounded and he was not was also any issue. For now, she had to be on the defensive side. She could flip him though, or use his weight and strength against him. Best way to get someone to run at you with all they’ve got? Make them really mad at you, or annoy them.

”Well, now I see what you meant when we last talked. We’re both kids from the worst parts of our cities. We both know what life there is like, just trying to survive from day to day. We were both taken in by rich guys who runaround in costumes at night after being caught doing what we needed to survive. You died and came back as a badass highly functioning zombie. I have HIV. You want to know the difference between us though?”[/b]

Mia’s voice managed to keep its slightly playful tone while gaining a hard, sharp edge to it. It was almost as if she were taunting him. She held the knife in one hand and stared him down as she spoke.

”You kill those who aren’t afraid of you or the Batman. I can see why you’d do that. But, I prefer to watch them suffer for what they’ve done. They’ll eventually die and burn in hell as they should. However, I don’t typically do that because we may have similar histories, but at the heart of the matter, I’m nothing, like, you. I don‘t kill because I think all life is sacred. The reason I don‘t kill is because I don‘t have to. Now, look at us, a pair of street kids fighting it out with knives. How cliché is that?”[/b]

Mia kept her eyes on the Red Hood at all times. There was no way she knew what he was going to do next. She still had no idea why he was here. He came after her for a reason though. She darn well wanted to know what that reason was.

”So, since I am obviously at a disadvantage here, why don’t you clue me into why you wanted to come after me, again. It’s sweet and all but, I just don’t like you like that. I didmy homework after our last little chat. I know who you are Jason Todd. Just like you know who I am. This isn‘t play time or cops are robbers with capes on. This is real life, with real endings, and we both know that they aren‘t all happy.”[/b]

[Red Hood]

Speedy was kind of annoying. And out of all the archers Star City had to offer Jason couldn't say she was the best, or even second best. So then why was he even considering her? Well Jason saw something in the current Speedy, she was a lot like him. Crappy parents, crappy parents, crappy new parents; pretty much everything about the both of them were crappy. They knew how truly ugly the streets were, the knew the darkest sides of crime. Mia had been forced into prostitution and Jason had been living a life of crime until the day he met Batman. They were essentially from the same cloth, made of the same stuff. When Jason looked at Mia he saw himself. Substitute his death with HIV and BAM; you have a less skilled, arrow toting, female Jason Todd.

"Sometimes I feel lazy." He quipped back to her about having her on top. Jason was never really one for banter. If it wasn't cursing someone out, threatening them, or blaming them for something or another he usually kept his mouth closed during fights. That apparently set him and Speedy apart. When Speedy rolled off of him and got to her feet Red Hood was already on his as well. Whereas she pulled a knife Jason remained unarmed, fairly confident that he didn't necessarily need a weapon to deal with the archer now that archery was off the table.

Speedy parted her lips and she spoke. Jason was unsure if she was trying to lull him into some sort of trap but it wasn't working. For the most part Jason simply ignored what she said, the words she had to say about him were irrelevent and as far as her stance on killing...well, Jason ignored that too. "Can I ask you something?" He asked, rather calmly as if there wasn't a fight going on right now between the two of them. "Why bow and arrows?"

[Speedy]

Mia watched the man standing across from her. He made no signs of attacking her at all. It was kind of unsettling to be honest. Mia had no idea what he was up to. It was really weird for her to have no ability to read someone. Maybe if she could get the stupid helmet off his head, she would have a better chance.

She scoffed as his lazy comment. Yeah, she had some customers who had been like that. She did not miss those days at all. Not one bit, no way. Mia realized something at that moment. The man in the red helmet had barely said anything. That was odd. He eventually said small sentences.

He was so damn calm about the whole thing. This guy, who had shot at her, cut her bow string, and had blown up her high school, was being calm. He was acting like there was not a fight going on between the two of them at all. Then, he asked why bows and arrows.

It took her by surprise a bit. Mia honestly did not know how to answer that question. Why had she picked a bow and arrows as her main weapon? She furrowed her brow as she thought. She made sure to keep her eyes on the man in front of her though.

It took her a few moments to come up with a good answer to the question. Well, it was an ok answer to the question. It was an answer, none the less. ”That’s what GA trained me in. Besides, an arrow is a lot quieter then shooting a bullet out of the barrel of a gun, even with a silencer. Takes a lot more skill too. Any idiot with the right connections an get a gun and learn to shoot it. It takes practice and skill to be able to shoot an arrow and have it hit its target.”[/b]

Mia felt, well, defensive all of the sudden. Like the Red Hood had asking some intimate detail about her life. Yeah, the thing about any idiot can shoot a gun was a jab at him Her eyes narrowed just a bit as the whole thing seemed more and more odd to her. ”Why do you care? What are you here for?”[/b] Her voice gave off the level of defensiveness and how ticked she was getting with the man. She wanted answers, and instead she was getting questions. What was his game?

The blonde kept herself from just lunging at Jason Todd. Switch a few things in their lives and change her gender and she could have been him. He made her feel very uneasy and that was not acceptable. Mia wanted this guy in chains, in a pit, covered in bruises and cuts. It was as if all her anger and frustration at everything was about to come to the surface and reach the boiling point. All that anger, frustration, and pain that she had kept to herself for a long time, it was coming towards the surface now. She took in deep breaths to quell it and try and keep herself somewhat calm. She knew he was after something. She just did not know what.

"What is it that you are here for? Why did you target me specifically?"[/b]

[Red Hood]

"So....its about bragging rights? Makes you feel special to be able to use a bow?" He thought her answer over. Anyone could grab a gun and just shoot sure, but anyone could do the same with an arrow. Precision was not simple with any form of weaponry, but Jason supposed Mia needed something to be able to diss him about. Honestly she was a bit more hotheaded than he had expected and right at that moment Red Hood was not thinking that was a good thing. It was obvious that his mere presence and existence infuriated the girl, that much really should have been expected though. They had gone through this song and dance before after all, with Jason leaving her school to explode as his grand finale. Bad blood was completely understandable. "I guess I should just be happy you didn't put an arrow between my eyes like Arrow did Prometheus." Jason summed up his feelings about the situation.

"I did all this because I wanted to see how you'd handle it. How you'd take care of these guys and a round two with me, I mean that should be obvious by now." Jason shrugged. "You can say whatever you want to try dividing us up but facts are we're the same. You're still trying to pretend otherwise but I think you're starting to see more and more that I'm right. Buuut, it looks like you still have a ways to go to fully meet your potential. Pretend that doesn't sound cheesy." As bad and cliche as it might have sounded it was also true, and though Jason had hopes and plans for this archer he was beginning to see that maybe he'd been a little too overzealous or gave her more credit than due.

She was a skillful fighter and highly adept with a bow but she had not yet grown into the fighter she could become. And Jason had not sought her out in hopes of training and sharpening her. The masked man before Speedy took in a deep breath and sighed. "Well, its been fun but I think I'll get going now. Give me a call if you're ever in Gotham." Jason kept his eyes on the archer as he turned on his heel and took his first step toward leaving.

[Speedy]

"It's not about bragging rights, it's about being able to kill but choosing not to."[/b] She was really getting irked by this guy. He kept yanking her chain, just like a whole bunch of other people whose butts she wanted to skin but didn't. Then, he had the nerve to bring up how Ollie killed Prometheus. No, Ollie had murdered Prometheus.

Her eyes narrowed as he gave his speech about how they really were not that different. How she was probably realizing that around now. She sure as hell was not going to let him know how true that was. She knew she still had a bit to go before she reached her peak, Connor was a good trainer though. Too bad he was not able to teach her to fight the urge to smash the Red Hood's face into the cement until it became jello. "I've heard a lot cheesier coming from your older brother."

Then, Mia noticed that he was turning to leave. Seriously. what the hell was with this guy? You can not just drop that sort of thing on a person and then leave. Not unless you want to be a total tool. She took the knife in her hand by the tip of the blade, aimed and threw it at Jason's shoulder. "You are supposed to leave me a number to call first, princess." [/b]

[Red Hood]

"Heh," she was probably right about hearing cheesier from Dick, Jason wouldn't doubt her there. The difference between he and Dick though was that no doubt Dick would probably give her nothing but positive reinforcement; allowing her to keep thinking on the level she was already at. Jason didn't see any good in that. Speedy might have been capable of a lot and she might have a lot of room for growth but until she really gave into what she could do, she'd be stuck as just a sidekick looking for a leader. Sometimes you had to go against your other half to really become the person, or hero, you were meant to be. Of course that was even cheesier than what Jason had said before so he didn't bother expressing these thoughts in words.

When the knife came it ripped his jacket and nicked his armer underneath. He turned back to face the blond. "Batman wanted me to be Robin because he thought my anger could be channeled well. He was right, it just took me a while to learn that there were certain rules and guidelines that needed to be built around my anger. His rules didn't work because he didn't have the same kind of anger as I did. Right now you're feeling that kind of anger, its inside you and no it won't go away. But because of that anger you can no long operate at your peak under Green Arrow's rules. I think you'll figure it out yourself whenever you allow yourself to. Birds of a feather, kid."

Sooner or later Mia would come around, maybe she wouldn't thank him for it but she would learn that Jason was right and she would be better off for it. Red Hood nodded to the archer and turned way once again, this time he did not stop or keep his eyes on her.

[exit Jason]

[Speedy]

Mia wanted to slap Jason in the face. She really was not up to dealing with someone who was a known crime lord telling her that they were the same. They may have similar backgrounds, but he had made his own choices. She made hers, as well. They had turned onto different directions on the same road, therefore going onto different roads. That was all.

Her muscles tensed as she wished she had a useable bow so she could shoot him in the face to make him shut up. He just kept talking though. His words actually made sense and struck a chord in her. Mia did not like that one bit. She wanted to distance herself from the psycho as much as humanly possible. That meant mentally, physically, and emotionally. So, having to listen to him go on about the anger she was feeling, that was not ok. Who was he, telling her how she felt?

Then, he just left. What was this guy’s deal? She wanted to go after him and take him down. She knew that she was at a disadvantage though. Her bow was out of commission, and that was her main weapon. So, she growled as he left. She was forced to pull out a small communicator that she had managed to put together using tech Ollie had left around. Pressing a button on it, she narrowed her eyes as she did her best not to growl into the piece of technology. She did not want Connor asking too many questions.

“GA, warehouse district. The idiots are out cold. Just need to move the drugs and guns. Oh yeah, and a bowstring would be nice.” She glowered at her stupid bow as she had to wait for Connor to come save her. This really just made everything worse. Next time she saw the Red Hood, she was putting him in a full body cast.

[exit Speedy]