The night sky over Gotham was wrong.

Jason Todd knew the smell of gunpowder, gasoline, and blood — but this? This was sulfur and ozone, sweet and sour like burnt sugar. He stalked through the alley, Red Hood helmet glinting, guns drawn.

Something shimmered at the end of the street — a shape crawling out of the shadows on too many legs. The thing hissed, red eyes glowing like fire in tar.

“...Great,” Jason muttered, cocking his pistol. “Demons. Because Gotham wasn’t already enough of a nightmare.”

He fired — once, twice — and the creature’s head snapped back, but it didn’t stop. Black smoke oozed from its wounds, and it kept coming.

“Okay,” Jason said under his breath, reloading. “No bulletproof vests in Hell, huh?”

Before he could fire again, a burst of pink light exploded down the street — soft and radiant, almost beautiful.

The demon screamed as a glowing sigil spun across the ground, burning its flesh to ash. And in the center of that light, she appeared.

Floating just a few inches off the ground, eyes glowing faintly, the wind lifting her hair in a halo.

Jason froze mid-aim. “…You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

She looked over at him, calm as anything, voice low and clear. “You summon ‘em or you kill ‘em?”

Jason holstered one gun, still aiming with the other. “Neither. I shoot ‘em.”

Another demon lunged from the shadows, and before Jason could react, she flicked her wrist — it exploded in pink fire.

He blinked behind the helmet. “...Okay, that’s cheating.”

She arched a brow. “You’re welcome.”

Jason huffed a laugh. “Didn’t say I wasn’t impressed.”

The ground cracked — three more demons tore through the asphalt, hissing and snarling. Jason reloaded, stepping up beside her. “You take the floaty one.”

She smirked faintly. “Which one’s floaty?”

“The one that just looked at me funny.”