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The night was cold and the light of the moon illuminated the darker places of the city. The rest was under the glare of the electric lights making sure that any late passerby would be able to see, not that there was anyone outside as everyone was inside their homes with their wall televisions, and sometimes there was more than one wall.
But that did not matter to the man in the rooftop. No. The Red Hood did not care about the shows being shown, nor about the lack of people in the streets. What the Red Hood cared for was the building in front of him.
The main Television Network Transmitter.
Jason glared at the building while reminiscing on how he got to this moment and place.
It had been a normal night for the Red Hood and his normal patrol through Crime Alley. Normal meaning that he had to stop some crime here and there, break some bones, and shoot at some people. But like always, Gotham normal was not mean to last and before he knew it, Jason found himself in another world.
He didn't know how he got here nor how to get back. So following Batman's training, as much as he hated to admit it, he went to investigate his surroundings. The first thing he found out was that people really liked TV. A lot. A little too much in his opinion but this was not his world so he didn't care too much.
The second thing he found out was that books were banned, like all books. That was a shock to his literature loving heart. But then, he found the worst thing that could happen in any world. Something that was celebrated. Something that was encouraged. Something that was everywhere no matter where he looked.
They were burning books.
They. Were. Burning. BOOKS!
And that made something in Jason snap. He ignored what the training said about not interacting and gathering unwanted attention. There was a rage taking over his mind that had nothing to do with the pit madness. This was purely Jason's own rage and there was nothing and no one that would be able to stop Jason in his self imposed crusade.
He will avenge the burned books. He will protect the remaining books. But for that, he must first destroy what had caught people's attention so thoughtfully. The television.
"No humans detected inside. No books detected inside"
Jason turned to the robot and grinned like a madman.
"Thanks Cujo. Good boy" Jason said as he patted the back of the eight legged robotic dog.
Yes, he knew it was named the Mechanical Hound, a machine made to hunt the people that did not fit with the rest and gave them a death sentence just for that. But Jason thought that it was a stupid name so he renamed this one Cujo in honor to the dog in that horror book.
Though getting Cujo was one of the best things that could have happened to him in this world. Jason still remembers how easy it was to kick the dog from mauling -or injecting that deadly mix of chemicals- that poor man. What he didn't expect was for the robot to be so easy to reboot with a kick.
{{flashback}}
Jason looked at the robot through his visor, waiting for the machine to attack again, but the dog just stood there doing nothing until Jason got close to it.
"Analyzing" the dog said in a artificial and somewhat young sounding voice.
"New owner scanned. Awaiting orders" the dog said as it sat down on its four haunches.
Jason frowned and scanned the dog himself. It had eight legs -weird choice for a robot dog- there were four in the front and four in the back, making the dog longer than normal flesh dogs to make space for the extra legs.
"Who is your owner?" Jason asked, wondering what the robot scanned.
"Unnamed owner in front. Please state designation" the dog responded.
That made Jason know for sure that the robot had rebooted and made him, the first human it saw, the owner. Now, he had a murder robot at his back and call, and probably the whole police department after him if the helicopter with the cameras approaching were to catch him.
"Call me Red Hood. Now, follow me" Jason said and got out of there as fast as he could.
"Following" the artificial voice peeped out.
"And disable all trackers"
"Trackers disabled"
At that, Jason smirked. He knew the helicopter was following a signal and now, without it, they were getting away from him.
Perfect.
{{flashback end}}
And that's how Jason obtained a robot dog with eight legs. He had tested the robot capabilities and there was a lot to improve. Though the ability to detect smells was fantastic and he was using it now to avoid doing any damage to any nearby book.
The other very useful thing that came with having a robotic murder dog following him, was that people stayed out of his way most of the time. Other times they gifted him things like food, alcohol, and some trinkets he had no use for but looked expensive. Jason had the thought that people were bribing him thinking he was some kind of officer walking around with a weapon in display.
"Alright, time to work" Jason said as he took his grappling hood before aiming it towards the building, "stay here Cujo"
"Order received" the mechanical hound sat down and stood still awaiting for further orders.
With the reassurance that the dog would stay still, Jason pressed the trigger and, as soon as the hook grabbed the wall, he flew towards the tall and imposing building where all the television networks transmitted to this and other cities.
Getting inside was easy. The security was so laughable that it might as well be useless. He knew of homeless camps with better security than this. Inside, it was pristine, not a speck of dirt anywhere, nor personalized items of the people working here. This soulless place was even more scary than the damn murder robot outside.
Either way, Jason kept on walking the empty halls and searching for the right places in which to plant his explosives.
Yes, explosives.
One thing he found out about the people of this world is that they were very good at setting things on fire, or making sure things were not set on fire. Like the buildings. There was some kind of plastic-like material covering every single building of the city making them practically fireproof.
In theory anyway.
A flaw on that theory was that if anyone wanted to set a building on fire, they would just have to break the thin film of material to reach the flammable parts of the building. And that's what Jason was going to do. Raiding a place that seemed to be a firefighting base but that was filled to the brim with flammable substances was the first step. Raiding a place filled with knives, nails, and a lot of scrap metal was the second.
With that, Jason made homemade bombs with fragments that would create multiple holes in the thin fire protection film. And if he made holes big enough to let the oxygen in, then there was no way for the film to stop the building from burning down.
With all the time in the world as there were no cameras in the building strangely enough, Jason put up several bombs. Half of them were the piercing bombs to destroy the film, and the other half were the incendiary bombs that would make the biggest bonfire this city had ever seen.
It only took him three hours to plant all of his bombs. Jason had made a lot and there were a lot of nice places in which to put them for maximum spread of the fire.
As soon as he was done, Jason used his grappling hook and returned to the rooftop in where he left the dog.
"Alright, all done" Jason was smirking maliciously under his helmet, "time to go Cujo"
"Following owner" the dog answered.
Jason chuckled under his breath and ran over the roofs of the city with the robotic dog following easily behind.
In the middle of the night, a huge boom woke up half the city. Many got out of their houses, curious about what was going on, while others turned on their wall TVs to see what the news would tell of the sound that woke them up. But those people would be left confused as there was nothing in the television, only static.
The ones that went outside were able to more or less know what was going on. The people that was farther from the sound saw an orange glow coming from far away, but the ones closer saw something that many thought it was impossible.
A building was on fire.
A huge building was burning and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. The flames devoured the walls and the insides of that behemoth in the center of the city. The roaring fire ignored the fire protection film and consumed matter as well as the attention of the people that was witness to its fury and hunger.
And getting further away from the beacon of destruction was a man wearing a helmet red as blood and a mechanical hound ready to obey its owner commands.
No one knew or would be prepared for the chaos a lover of books with enough training and madness would spread upon the city. No one was prepared for Jason Todd.