Disclaimer: Young Justice © DC

Notes: First actual fanfic I've done, and it's also the first bit of personal writing I've done in almost a year. Read at your own risk. There's going to be multiple chapters on this, I want it to be a project I can have fun working on when I have free time.

Jason Todd comes back as the Red Hood, written in the Young Justice universe. Set a bit before the beginning of Invasion.

So I'm kind of nervous putting this up, but here goes nothing? Heh. ^^;

The bushes outside Gotham rustled as the Alpha Squad swiftly made their way through the forest, close to finishing the mission Nightwing had assigned them. Gar was singing something obnoxious (as usual) in the telepathic link, and it wasn't to Robin's liking. What was the song now, Call Me Maybe?

Oh well, he grimaced, It's better than when he insisted on singing Friday every night.

Heeeey! the shape-shifter whined. I can HEAR you!

Really? I'm surprised anyone could hear anything over your little concert.

Both of you, shut up, now. A new voiced chimed in, and both of them immediately fell quiet, allowing their squad leader to talk. When Nightwing assigned the four of us this mission, I wasn't expecting to have to babysit two freshmen. Conner scowled, and Robin gulped, looking over at the well built Super, watching the vein in his neck tense as his anger grew. Their last team member noticed this as well, and tried her best to calm them down.

Conner, relax. They didn't mean any harm... Don't you remember Nightwing and Wally? the voice was almost soothing to hear, and Conner settled down.

Alright... fine. Sorry, M'gann. Gar smiled to himself at the former couple, glad to see that his sister still had the same effect on the clone. It hadn't been that long since their breakup, and even less time had passed since that nosy La'gann had wormed his way into her arms. God, he hated him. He was such a know it all, and a downright douche, too. Why didn't M'gann see that? Conner treated her so well... what happened to them that caused them to split up? Beast Boy sighed, his tail drooping at the thought.

Beast Boy! Mg'ann barked, Pay attention. We need to split up. Nightwing wants us to intercept this drug trade a cartel's doing. You remember what he told us, right?

Uhh... doesn't this have more of that stuff or whatever that Bane uses? He scratched his head with his tail, hoping he was at least close to being right. Conner let out a frustrated groan, and M'gann sighed.

Just follow me. Robin, Superboy, you two take the right and we'll take the left. Block off all exits. Nightwing sent us here for a reason, we can't disappoint him. The other three nodded, and as they entered the "abandoned" factory, Beast Boy shifted into a bird as he and M'gann flew off to the back exit. Conner looked at Robin, and rolled his shoulders into a shrug.

"You ready?" he asked, raising a brow as he held his arms out and Robin stuttered. "Uh... y-yeah! Yeah, let's do this." Robin blushed a little, his cheeks turning pink as Superboy scooped him up in his arms and jumped to the other side, landing on the roof. He set the younger teenager down, and dusted off his hands before observing their setting. A brief frustration bristled through him before he spotted an entrance, and he signaled the younger vigilante over. "You as good as Nightwing with these things?" He pointed to an alarm, set to go off in case they broke in.

"You mean... you want me to hack the motion sensors?" A crooked, almost flirtatious grin formed on Robin's face as he bent down, pulling up his wrist-monitor. He punched in a few strings of numbers before the blinking alarm's light faded. Conner smirked, impressed, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Not bad, Rob." He chuckled and he hoisted himself down the chute, tossing up a grappling hook for him to slide down on. After quietly landing, the two of them headed further in. Robin quietly gasped in surprise as he saw a cartel member scurry by, carting a couple of boxes. He grabbed Conner and motioned him to duck, and the two of them hurried, staying concealed the entire time. At least, they thought they had stayed hidden.

An alarm had sounded and Robin and Conner looked around worriedly, trying to figure out what happened. Then Robin had spotted a roaming security camera fixed straight on them, and literally did a double take. Man, he felt pretty stupid right now. He didn't know how long the camera had been following them, and to be honest, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"Okay." He hissed under his breath. "I may not be as good as Nightwing when it comes to hacking." Conner cursed silently in response, and tightened his gloves around his wrists.

"Looks like I'm going to have an outlet for some of my anger." He snarled, and leaped off, landing on one of the incoming foot-soldiers. He punched the ground, causing a miniature shockwave that knocked the rest of them off their feet. Robin followed up by letting off a few bird-a-rangs, exploding around the stumbling men. He swooped the remaining man off his feet with his bo, and knocked him out quickly afterwords. Catching his breath, Robin nodded to Conner, who gave him a quick smile of approval in return. Clapping could then be heard, and they both fell back into their offensive stances.

"Oh, relax. Who do you take me for, the Joker?" A shadowed figure stepped into the light, resting his foot on a crate. He pulled at his biker jacket, and chuckled. At least, Robin thought he was chuckling. He wasn't too sure, because his face was hidden behind a metallic red helmet. "Come on now, make yourselves at home. I'm meeting Superboy!" He paused momentarily, tilting his head as he examined Robin. "And...is this Robin? The famous Robin, one half of the dynamic duo?" he crowed with amusement, and Superboy snarled.

"Back off." he hissed, gritting his teeth and stepping in front of Robin. The masked man shrugged.

"What? Just admiring one of the best teenaged partners out there. You must be so lucky." The venom in his voice made Robin cringe, and Conner put an arm in front of him.

"Stop talking to him like that, and either fight or go away." He stated bluntly, curling his fists. The masked man chuckled and waved his hand in dissmissal.

"Your teammates are already done with your little 'mission.' I'm just here because I'm bored."

"You knew about this?" Conner snarled again.

"Oh, of course I did. My mentor... excuse me, ex-mentor taught me to keep surveillance on everything."

"..." Robin still hadn't spoken since Conner had stepped in front of him, and he didn't want to. Superboy was menacing enough as it was, with his luck, Rob's voice would crack or something dumb like that, causing any tension to dissipate.

"Anyways, I'm gone. Just make sure to tell Nightwing that Red Hood says hi, will you?" Red Hood flicked his sleeve goodbye. "And thanks for taking out these shitfaces, I was going to do it anyways when they were done." And with that, the masked man was gone, leaving the two Team members very confused.

This is Miss Martian, contacting Superboy and Robin. Hello? M'gann's telepathic link was reestablished, and Conner slowly calmed down.

M'gann? We need to go. Like, now. Did you two finish?

Of course we did, Conner. What happened on your end? We heard the alarm go off.

It's a long story. And I'm not exactly sure on what happened... Robin, you there?

Red Hood... Robin thought, paralyzed in thought. Red Hood was the Joker's old mantle, before he became, well, the Joker. The guy mentioned the Joker. Something was connected, but what? And he knew everything Robin did when it came to surveillance... who was this man? We need to talk to Nightwing. Like, now.