Selina's Sidekick

part fifteen

welcome to my darkside

The hollow sound of the door bell alerted the Kyle house hold that someone was at their front door.

"Jason! Can you get that, please?"

"Sure thing!" Jason put the book he was reading down, making his way over to the front door.

He didn't bother looking through the peep hole - his first mistake. His second mistake would come in the way he decided to address who was on the other side of the door.

Opening the door, Jason took one look at the visitor and snorted. "Halloween ain't for another month, mister. Besides, aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?"

The visitor - a well dressed man with a black skull on his face - looked down at Jason with an unreadable expression. It wasn't him who reacted but one of the two men with him, the one on his right, to be exact. He lifted his hand and slapped Jason across the face with the back of the appendage, sending the teen to the floor with the force of the hit.

The man with the black skull walked into the apartment uninvited, his two goons following behind. He crouched next to Jason, raising a hand to press two fingers into the swollen red flesh on his cheek. "You should be more careful when addressing me, boy."

Jason, never one to be known for keeping his mouth shut, sneered at the man. "Why? You the pope or something?"

The man let out a low chuckle. "Or something. The name is Roman Sionis. But you may call me Black Mask. Or, if you prefer, boss."

The young teen went to snark out a reply when Selina beat him to it, walking into the room at that moment. "Kitten? Sweetie, who was at the do - Roman. What are you doing here?"

Jason felt chills go down his spine from how quickly his mom's voice went from loving to deadly.

Roman merely stood up, leaving Jason on the ground to stare up at the four adults as his mother positioned herself between him and Roman. Black Mask merely chuckled at that. "Selina, you of all people should know better than to take what belongs to me." Said woman narrowed her eyes at the man. This did not deter him as he continued with his speech. "I am merely here to take what rightfully belongs to me. What you owe me, so to speak. Think of it as paying me back, Selina."

"I owe you nothing, Sionis." Selina spat, helping Jason off the floor. "And as to what belongs to you, I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific."

Black Mask lifted a hand and pointed at Jason. "The boy. He's mine."

Scoffing, Jason stepped out from behind Selina to glare up at the Gotham villain. "Mister, I don't know what delusional world you live in, but I don't belong to nobody but my damn self."

"Jason." He recognized that tone in his mom's voice, that warning edge. He backed down, going back to stand with her but kept his glare firmly fixed on Roman.

Sionis clapped. "You've even trained him for me! Look at that! He heels like a show dog. Well done, Selina, well done."

"Back off, Roman, I'm warning you." Jason could hear the slight tremble in Selina's speech, sense her anxiety climbing. He had never seen her this way, not even when facing down Batman. It was...unnerving, at best.

"Or what? You'll pick my pockets? Ha! I have an army, and what do you have?"

"Apparently the one thing you want but will never get." It clicked in Jason's head what Roman was after and he intended to exploit that.

Roman turned his attention to the teen. "And what, pray tell, would that be?"

"A son. An heir. A successor to your empire." Jason smirked. "Me."

It was hard to tell due to the wooden skull on his face, but Jason was sure that Roman Sionis' face was pinched with anger at his comment.

He felt Selina's arm wrap around his shoulder, felt her confidence grow more as he stood up for them. She stood straighter, looking Roman in the eye as she addressed him. "Leave my house. And don't come back."

Roman motioned for his goons to leave. As he was walking out, he paused in the doorway to stare at the duo of thieves. "This is far from over, Catwoman. I will win this."

Slamming the door, Selina let out the air in her lungs turning to Jason to hug him tightly. "Oh, my sweet kitten! You are so brave!"

Jason hugged his mom back. "Mom..."

She hugged tighter. "I know, Jason, I know."

"So, what do we do?" He pulled out of the hug a little, looking up at Selina.

She paused for a moment, pondering the question. "We call in backup."

Watching his mom send a text, Jason decided to make them some dinner, seeing as it was getting to that point in the day and he was hungry.

But, of course, seeing as it was him and nothing can ever go right for the boy, the doorbell rang once more, pausing Jason's efforts.

Grunting, Jason grabbed a kitchen knife and made his way over to the door, this time looking through the peephole. He rolled his eyes when he saw who was on the other side, ripping the door open and forgetting what was in his hand. "What do you want, Drake? Come to drag me into the closet of my own home?"

"Not as long as you're holding a knife, no."

Jason furrowed his brow before looking at his hand and remembering the blade he held. He placed it down on the table beside the door, turning back to Tim and Bruce. "As far as I know, our dinner wasn't rescheduled to today."

"We are not here for dinner." Bruce grunted, staring Jason down. He noticed the welt on the teen's cheek and his gaze softened slightly. "What happened to your face?"

Bristling instantly, Jason had half a mind to kick the two billionaires out of his home. Instead, he fed them some lie about being jumped on the way home. "Gotham is a rough city, as I'm sure you're aware." He squinted at them. "Now, why are you here if not for dinner?"

Tim cleared his throat, shooting Bruce a look. "When we...had lunch...earlier, you seemed to have taken my phone by mistake. May I have it back?"

Jason looked perplexed for a moment before it dawned on him. "Oh! You're talking about when you jumped me and tried to ask about why I stole from your brother - which I didn't, he's lying - and then I decided to actually steal from you for assuming that just because I'm from crime alley means I must be a criminal."

Tim and Bruce blinked. "You...you stole from me to prove that not everybody from crime alley is a criminal?" Jason nodded. "How does that make sense?"

"It doesn't, that was, admittedly a cover story I just made up on the spot." Jason shrugged.

"You are confusing me." Tim pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why did you take my phone?"

Smiling innocently, Jason walked over to the couch and produced Tim's cellphone from his backpack. "I stole it - although I really prefer the term borrowed in this case - because I needed proof."

"Of what?" Bruce narrowed his eyes.

Batting his lashes and shrugging, Jason gripped the door. "That is above even your pay grade, Bruce. Bye now." He slammed the door on them, turning around to see Selina standing there with her hands on her hips and her lips pursed.  He smiled at her. "What?"

She shook her head. "Did you really steal Tim Drake's cellphone just to get him to come over again?"

Jason fumbled over his footing as he followed after his mom. "No! I really did need proof!"

"Mhm. Of what?"

"Proof that...Tim Drake isn't Robin."