Thunk! Dante tumbles down a grassy hill, his wings all over the place. It’s all very clumsy.

 

“Jason, you here? That was awesome.” He sits up, his back flickering, his wings going transparent. “Ugh, overheated.” 

 

He removes his jacket and shirt, his skin desperately needing some air. The symbol on his back that normally lights up when he Devil Triggers, is blinking a starry light. He holds his head, caught in a whirlwind of vertigo.

 

“Bird got out ‘the cage,” he says, slumping and catching himself with his palm in the patchy turf. “Jay-SON!”

 

Jason comes running, the flock of robins behind him. They swarm him as he sprints up the hill.

 

“They’re chasing me, man! What do I do?!”

 

Dante cracks up, lying in the grass, “Let ‘em catch you! They’re just birds.”

 

“If you say so,” Jason says apprehensively, stopping at the hilltop. He covers himself as the flock flutters all around him before… soaring inside of him!

 

Everything mystically washes over in a wondrous emerald-green shine.

 

When the light subsides, Dante smiles brightly in awe at the badass above him. 

 

Jason has a brand new uniform: Dante’s Neo clothing in black, Robin’s jungle-green boots, Red X’s cape with a cloak-like red hood, war paint of a thick red X across half of his face, his white fringe peaking out over his forehead.

 

“Killer-Red, is that you? Are you okay?”

 

“Oh I am so okay!”

 

“You look so goddamn cool!”

 

“I feel so goddamn cool! It’s like my spirit’s been renewed. Like my soul was being tortured here in Hell for years and now it’s finally over. What’d you do?!”

 

“I think I Holy Angel Triggered and hunted a bunch of devils that were tied to you, like you said.”

 

“I feel like a million bucks right now! Are you, are you alright?”

 

Dante puts his tank top back on and stands, his jacket in his hand, his body still wobbly.

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I just need a minute.”

 

He sits. Jason bounds down the hill and sits beside him.

 

“Take your time. Your wings are stellar.”

 

“Thanks,” Dante says, putting his head between his knees. Jason, feeling especially trusting and fond of him, scoots a little closer.

 

“How do they work?”

 

“They only work when I Angel Trigger.”

 

“Is that why I can’t normally see them?”

 

“You saw them before that?”

 

“Kinda yeah, in the church.”

 

“If I’m not about to Angel Trigger, and you can still see them, it means I like you.”

 

Jason fist pumps with a whispered but triumphant, “Yes!” 

 

He then takes a closer look at his hands. They’re metallic-black, resembling silvery molten metal, redness in his palms like thick paint. He regulates his breathing. The desire to become an unscrupulous stalker of demonic prey, it’s a pleasurable notion he’ll soon need to entertain.

 

“Hey, don’t look up,” he says innocently, “cause you’ve probably seen this a hundred times, but that huge engraved list in the distance, on the side of that cylinder building, is that the law of the land?”

 

“Those are Vergil’s laws for Limbo City, yeah,” Dante says, keeping his head tucked and his eyes shut.

 

“This one caught my eye. Let there be commerce! The humans shall trade, buy, and sell without violent interruption. Maybe in a perfect world. It’s a good standard though.”

 

“All of them are good in theory but the law of the land doesn’t have anyone but demons to police it. They have all the wealth. They have all the resources.”

 

“Everyone in that building you mean?”

 

Dante lifts his head, needing to look his friend in the eye.

 

“Yes. Whoa. Whoa whoa, wait, we can’t go in there. Not without a good reason.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“That’s where Vergil lives.”

 

“Dante, I’m still not totally convinced I didn’t die and enter some kinda dreamy afterlife. Whenever I feel a little unsure of the world around me, a little bit of bloodshed helps me wake up. So, where can we trade, buy, and sell something for you to eat?”

 

“Past Vergil’s weird commandments, the building behind the Hub.”

 

“You want me to steal something for you?”

 

“I have money.”

 

“You had money this whole time? Lemme get you some food, like you did for me. What do you want?”

 

Dante finds some cash in his coat and hands it to him, “More meat.”

 

Jason pockets it, “You got it.”

 

He gets up and is about to head that way, but stops.

 

“What’s wrong, Killer-Red?”

 

“Some demons devour humans. I’m not about to buy us some Soylent Green, am I?”

 

“No, it’s all preserves and frozen rations. They cook the chicken in the mornings.”

 

“Alright, you stay here and rest… for once. Kay? I promise I won’t be long.”

 

Dante can’t deny he’s still a little out of it.

 

“Fine, but if you’re gone more than twenty minutes-“

 

“I only need ten. Take a cat nap, angel.”

 

With that, Jason is off with a wave.

 

Behind the Hub, when he arrives, there’s a line, one filled with people he recognizes but they’re not so sure about him. 

 

He walks secured in his cape, head covered in his vermilion hood, his footsteps soundless. His position, adjacent to the line. He’s curious about an argument ensuing in the front and places himself beside a frazzled Arkham Asylum doctor, who’s challenging a gatekeeping demon. 

 

With a tone of superiority, the demon reminds him, “This wall of crystal, between you and me, it divides the humans from the demons. This city belongs to the Demon King.”

 

The doctor snaps, “I don’t care who it belongs to, you need to sell us some food!” 

 

His white coat filthy, his face haggard, and he knows he stinks like the rest of the unbathed asylum workers. Limbo City hasn’t been kind to him or anyone else behind him.

 

“There’s no more food to sell,” the shadowy devil lies, the smell of cooked meat making everyone salivate. “This food is for those who pledge their allegiance to the King.”

 

“I’m not doing that!” 

 

He bangs his fists on the crystal, cracking it.

 

“Take my money, give me food!”

 

“Your money means nothing,” the demon says, its shape indecisive, smoky and black. Floating behind the translucent wall, the devil’s form is comparable to a storm cloud.

 

“My money was never rejected in Gotham!”

 

The doctor stops, spooked at the strange being beside him.

 

“Rob-Robin?”

 

Chin up, his eyes hidden under the shadow of his hood, Jason exposes the glistening red X on the left side of his face. His voice is bright and cold.

 

“Hello, Doctor, remember me? Want me to kill it?”

 

“Red-Red Hood?”

 

“My name is Killer-Red. Once upon a time, you asked me in therapy, in Arkham Asylum, if I enjoyed killing my victims. Do you remember my answer?”

 

“Ye-yes. You, you said it made you feel almost as powerful as putting a gun in your mouth.”

 

“That’s right. You said that made me even more dangerous than you thought and you ordered me put back in that stupid straitjacket. You weren’t wrong but that was a mistake. Whose gonna protect you now?”

 

Palms raised in surrender, the doctor pleas.

 

“I’m-I’m, I’m sorry for putting you in a straitjacket, Red Hood.”

 

“Red Hood’s not here right now. I’m Killer-Red. Remember?"

 

“Killer-Red, please, don’t hurt me. I made a mistake. Please, I just, I just-“

 

The demon growls, “Human! You dare cower before this child in the presence of the Demon King’s Watchers?”

 

“Move,” Killer-Red tells the doctor, who immediately does what he’s told. He joins the other humans a few feet back, the line now curving. Everyone is about ready to take off.

 

Unexpectedly, Killer-Red also steps back, then charges at the shielding crystal, throwing himself, his whole body shattering it.

 

“Hunter!” the Watcher bellows. 

 

Killer-Red tumbles through the demon, blackness swirls everywhere.

 

Chaos erupts! 

 

The humans, in their desperation, run towards the aromatic meat heating over embers of coal and wood. Even a few bites are worth it. The demon hollers again!

 

“Stop! You haven’t paid your dues to the King! The crime for disrespecting his Majesty will be death if you don’t-“

 

“What’s up, fucker?!” 

 

Killer-Red playfully pops up in front of the monster, with a thrust of crystal shards. It’s mouth a blackhole among unshaped darkness, it flinches then bares a set of jagged teeth. Jaws open wide, with a shriek, it chomps down to bite off his head!

 

SLOSH. Shot straight from his palms, the demon is consumed in red tar! 

 

“What?! WHAT?! Holy frijoles, Batman, if only you could see me now!”

 

Grander than the Xs he used to throw as Red X, this unholy muck expands and swallows the demon from within it’s own mouth. It implodes in a wet burst of elastic gunk, leaving behind a mound denser than red clay. Killer-Red is tickled.

 

“Look at what I did! Ho my God, is this Heaven? Oh right, the food. I’m on it.”

 

He begins humming, serenely walking in the middle of the insanity. At the meat station, he removes a rotisserie turkey mounted on a rotating mechanism, and walks away with a fully cooked bird on a steel split.

 

“And I didn’t even have to spend a dime. Hey Doc, catch!”

 

He rips off a leg and tosses it at the cowering doctor, who checked out. His patient’s demonic transformation into a cosmic creature glorified in bloodlust, that was too much. Frightened in place, his instincts were to freeze, but when that scrumptious meat lands next to his dirty shoes, he hits the ground and consumes it like a wild animal.

 

“Taste good, doesn’t it. Don’t forget, my name is Killer-Red. You can tell that to the demons when they make you stand in line again.”

 

“This is, this is fun for you,” slobbers the doctor, who has an epiphany as he scarfs the turkey leg. “This, this is a good thing.”

 

“Glad you finally understand that, Doc. There’s hope for you yet!”

 

A blissful grin on his face, he loyally heads back to Dante. Humming some more as he feeds on his steal, he jubilantly contemplates recounting the pandemonium to his famished friend.