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The docks are on fire.
All of Rogers Yacht Basin is on fire.
From there, it'll jump to New Town, and then into the Alley. The Alley is a tinderbox right now - the buildings are too close together, and the Fire Department won't be able to make it in, and they'll be busy anyway, because the docks are on fire.
He has to fix this.
He can't-. Even if all his people tried, they couldn't fix this. It's the end of summer, there's not enough water. Not to put out the fires on the docks, and wherever else it might spread. Not even all the firefighters in the city could manage this. It's the entire harbour. And soon it'll be a third of the city, if it doesn't get put out right now.
If he had a meta with the right powerset, maybe he could fix this, but he doesn't.
Or if he had magic.
He looks wildly at Dick, standing next to him. He shouts, “Are any of the magic people you know free right now?”
“No!”
Shit. Okay.
If he can't get hold of a trained magician, can he get hold of an untrained one?
What does that even look like? Who would that even be?
How would you know? Does there have to be an affinity for magic, or is it just training?
…Or…is it just thinking the right way?
Jason grabs Dick by the shoulders, yells over the roar of the flames, “There's magic in Gotham, right?”
Dick yells back, “Yeah? Uh. Yeah. Zee says there's magic everywhere. Why?”
Christ. Okay. This is gonna work. It's got to.
Magic works if you believe it will.
He's just gotta think the right way.
He can do this. He can totally do this.
…He takes a breath in.
The Alley is his steading.
A breath out. Uptown is his steading.
A breath in. This place is his to protect.
A breath out. He can do this.
A breath in. Balance.
A breath out. He's got to do this.
A breath in. …He whispers “Frost to fire.”
One hand to the fire, one to the water.
The Red Hood will not yield. He will not move. His people to the left of him, nothing he cares about to the right.
He pulls the heat close, so hot it burns. But he's been burned before. It's just pain. And then he moves it.
He is the Red Hood. He will not yield.
He stays balanced: and the heat of his steading burning- moves.
The water in the harbour sublimates straight to scalding steam.
Behind him he can hear Dick yelp “Holy shit!”
He blocks it out, and he starts walking.
*****
“Babs, are you seeing this?”
“Seeing what ? I'm busy!”
“I think- you'll be less busy pretty soon.”
“What-?”
“You need to see this.”
He hears the quiet click as she patches into his mask.
And then he hears her breathe “What the fuck.”
Yeah, that's pretty accurate.
Jason's striding slowly along the breakwater between the docks proper and where Uptown begins.
One hand is stretched out towards the fire, the other towards the water.
In front of Jason, the fire is still blazing.
But behind him, where he's already passed, it's not.
Instead, it's the water on the right of him that's-. Dick doesn't know how it's happened, but it's steam.
As Jason walks further on, the amount of steam that- Jason? is making? what? wreathes around him, mixing with the smoke from the fire.
Is Jason fucking magic now? What the hell is this shit?
Dick starts to follow him.
*****
They're round the other side of the harbour now. Dick's pretty sure the whole thing is no longer on fire. What the hell.
But! The Fire Department can take it from here. There's not that much left for them to do! Because Jason! Put the fire out! Somehow!
Jason slows to a stop, then drops to a knee.
Dick darts forward, and catches him.
Jason drops his head against Dick's collarbone, then straightens just enough to pull his mask and hood off. Dick glances round for half a breath - it's fine, the visibility is shit.
Jason’s eyes are blown wide with adrenaline.
He laughs. “Holy shit.”
He grabs at the back of Dick's neck and pulls him closer, pressing their foreheads together. He laughs again, “Holy shit, I can't believe that worked.”
Dick shoves his head harder against Jason's. “What the fuck did you do?”
Jason's baking hot. For someone who's normally cold, that's- worrying.
Jason says vaguely, “Babs, have you ever read Wintersmith?”
She clicks onto the external speaker on Dick's suit. “...The Discworld book?”
“Yeah.” Jason sounds -and looks- blitzed with adrenaline. “It's a fuckin’- witch trick. Tiffany melted magic snow with a bonfire. I just-. Applied the same trick. It was worth a shot.” He laughs again. “I can't believe it actually fuckin’ worked.”
“What the fuck are you trying to say?”
“Uptown is mine. It's my steading. An’ I'm a fuckin’ witch, I guess. Holy shit.”
Okay, this is not helpful. Jason laughs again.
They'll have to get him somewhere to calm down. Dick twists, and pulls him upright.
Jason goes with him, then mashes his face into Dick's shoulder, still laughing.
Okay, time to go home. Or- the Clocktower. Babs can explain, since it doesn't seem like Jason's going to.