Life seemed to have slowed down its pace. Or at least, Skylar felt that way.

Things seemed to grow monotonous. Though she liked being out on patrol, the guy she was chasing after with Red Hood had not made an appearance still. This automatically meant very boring stakeouts. It almost felt like a waste of time, though Skylar was not going to admit that out loud.

She could only hope that today's stakeout would be different.

And as though Jason could sense the thoughts going through her mind, he turned to look at her and she could tell that he was smirking. His obsession with smirking knew no bounds. Weirdo.

"The guy's gonna make an appearance today, you know? Don't pretend that you don't feel like it. I thought with your enhanced senses you could tell stuff like that."

"I can't predict the future, shithead. I can only hope we catch the guy today so I don't have to spend some more time with you and lose my brain cells."

"Did you even have brain cells to actually lose them?"

He laughed as though he had made a good joke. Skylar facepalmed and looked away, leaning against the railing on the roof of the building. Like typical Gotham nights, the sky was completely dark. The moon was a tiny speck, hidden behind clouds and the pollution of the city. If Skylar concentrated and focused on her eyes, she could see a more clear sky because of her enhanced senses. The headache would not be worth it though. It was better to focus on what was close by.

Instead, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the warehouse, slowly activating her enhanced hearing. It was nothing like Superman's by any chance but it had a long enough range that she could still hear what was going on around the warehouse.

But nothing. Skylar couldn't hear anything.

The quiet silence of the night was just that. A quiet silence. Besides the scurrying of the rats and the sound of her and Jason's beating hearts, there was no other noise. Then, a quiet scurrying of feet. A rush of noise that was out of place for an abandoned warehouse. Someone was making a move tonight.

Skylar pulled back. She ignored the slight prick of pain that she felt in her ears and turned towards Jason. "We should move."

"You're right about that." Jason had his binoculars out and he was looking at the building through them. After a few moments had passed, he put them away. "You ready?"

"Always am."

*

Only later would Skylar realise that she and Jason were freakishly efficient when it came to working together. Maybe it was because they hated spending time around one another; they worked quickly, in a manner so precise and sneaky that it would make Batman envious. Hatred led to an efficient partnership in the case of Red Hood and the Watcher.

(The enemy of my enemy is...a friendlier enemy)

Shrouded by the darkness and the silence, the duo snuck into the alleyway between the two buildings. From what they had studied about the warehouse, it had three entrances. One was the boarded-up front entrance. The other was an entrance at the back. This was the entrance the drug dealer and his criminal friends were using. Not very inconspicuous of them. Sneaking in through the back entrance of an abandoned warehouse? It was like they were trying to incriminate themselves.

The third entrance was a side entrance, a door that led to the alleyway. It was locked and bolted shut from the outside, with metal chains tightly wound around the handle.

"Let me handle this," Skylar said with a smirk. "We don't need a gun to open up the door."

Jason put his gun back into his belt, albeit reluctantly. "Go on. Work your magic then."

"Sure will."

Skylar pretended to take a bow. She placed a hand on the chains and focused, pushing all her strength to her hands. She tugged on the chains slowly and pulled at them all at once. With a soft noise, the chains fell and broke away. Skylar pushed on the door handle and it immediately opened.

She turned toward Jason with a grin. "After you."

He simply ignored her and just went inside. Skylar shook her head before she followed him, closing the door behind her.

It took her a second to adjust to the darkness of the warehouse. It was very dimly lit, full of broken and unbroken wooden crates, metal containers and stacks of cardboard cartons. It looked like a normal storage warehouse, but if they were to open any of the containers or the cartons, they were going to find some sort of drugs in all likelihood. Skylar could smell the coke from here (kudos to her enhanced senses) and it was not the drinking kind.

"Red Hood, what's the -"

Skylar trailed off when she realised Jason had snuck off. God, what was it with the Batboys and being so sneaky in the darkness?

There was a loud clutter of noise. In the silence, it was like someone had let off a bomb. She could hear Jason's laugh in a corner of the warehouse, along with the angry and the surprised shouts of the men they were after.

Skylar focused on hearing the number of heartbeats. Including hers and Jason, there were eight, including one that triggered an old memory. It was a battle of two versus six. She ducked behind a container and then another and then another before she was finally standing behind the one Jason was standing on. She could see a faint light and many shadows on the other side, shadows which carried guns.

"Now, I am giving you two choices here. You stop dealing your shit, hand it over to me without protesting and I'll not shoot you and hand you over to GCPD. If you don't, I'll shoot you and then hand you over to GCPD. Seems fair right?"

"You think you can take all of us in a fight? Not even the Red Hood is capable of handling six people at once!" The man they were after, the drug dealer, Scarecrow's supplier, yelled.

Jason had mentioned a name some time (Jack? Tom?), but Skylar couldn't bring herself to remember. She inched closer and closer to the opposing side. The light grew brighter and the shadows did an agitated dance.

"You're questioning my abilities? You do know what I did right? What I control? Or do you not have a brain?" There was amusement in Jason's voice, but also a slightly steely edge.

No one could forget how ruthlessly the Red Hood had nearly all of Gotham's underworld under his control. And he was just twenty. It was honestly a little awe-inspiring and a tad bit scary. But at the time, the last vestiges of grief still had their claws in Skylar, so when she had her first confrontation with Red Hood, knowing he was Jason, even knowing he was Bruce's son, she had been an angry twenty-year-old. When you put two angry twenty-year-olds in a fight, things were not going to turn out well. Both of them had broken bones in the fight.

But anyways, that was ages ago.

"And I never said I was alone," Jason continued. "I came with a very dear friend of mine." The sarcasm dripped from his voice.

"Yes, we are very close friends," Skylar stepped out, taking a battle stance. The drug dealer's eyes bugged out and his men pointed their guns, all AK-47s, at her. It was a dangerous situation to be in, but then again, both she and Jason were dangerous in their own way.

"You-" The man growled. "You fucking bitch, I am going to kill you."

"Still as disrespectful towards women then?" Skylar bit back the anger she was feeling. She really did not like this guy. "I wasn't in control of my strength when we first met. Still, I managed to hurt you. Now I am in control. Can you imagine the damage I could cause you?"

"I'll kill you first," The man growled. He turned towards his men. "Shoot them."

Things moved quickly after that. Skylar didn't really give a damn about Batman's rules. So when Jason opened fire, she didn't care. He was not going to kill them and if he tried, and only if, she'd stop him then. Amidst the gunfire echoing in the warehouse and the sparks lighting up the place, Skylar tackled the man. She hadn't succeeded in capturing when they had first faced, but now she would.

"The scar on your face is quite nasty," Skylar told the man as she dodged one of his angry punches. She had already kicked his gun away. "I'd love to make it worse."

When the man moved in for his next strike, Skylar punched with the full force of her strength. Her fist met his cheek with a sick crack. The man staggered.

"Y-you," He groaned out. Judging by the bruise blossoming on his face, she must have gotten him gotten. With gunfire and the sounds of people screaming and groaning and fighting serving as her background noise, Skylar punched him again. This time, he fell to the ground, knocked out. She stood over him, a tad bit relieved but also secretly gleeful. She had taken him out. Not being able to capture this man after their previous fight was regretful, but that was now resolved. The man wouldn't be dealing drugs to anyone anymore.

"You done?" Jason called out, as he struck the last remaining henchman with the end of his gun.

"All done here," Skylar told him. "Looks like I took down the big bad today."

Jason holstered his gun after checking that the henchman was knocked out. "I took down more men than you thought. So I am still stronger."

"Ha! You tell yourself that," Skylar answered with a grin. "But it won't change the truth."

Jason patted her head like she was a child. "Believe what you want."

She swatted his hand away, steadying her hood. "Let's tie up these guys and get the hell out of here. We caused a lot of commotion and if I am hearing correctly, GCPD should be arriving here any minute."

"Someday, you're gonna have to tell me how your powers work."

"I sure hope that day never comes."

It was a blessing that this partnership was actually over now. No more stakeouts with Jason and feeling like she was steadily losing her brain cells.

(Oh, she was going to regret thinking that this was over)

I am really sorry about the lack of updates; life has been really weird lately. But I have been prewriting for metanoia because I have grown very attached to Jason and Skylar. Their dynamic is so fun to write. I have got some really fun stuff written for them, including the scenes where they first feel attracted to each other and let me tell you...its a scene that I have really enjoyed writing.

Till then, I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Comments and votes are super appreciated <3