Not Part of the Job [REVISION]

3. Facade

It was a cold, sunny morning in the city. Birds were chirping as they soared through the cloudless sky and sat on powerlines. Adults were driving to work and picking up breakfast on the way. Kids were being walked to public school.

Meanwhile Damian was sitting against a brick wall, eating a banana for breakfast while listening in on the comms of the police car that was parked in the alley. He was waiting for a distress call, or more specifically, a call for the Teen Titans to spring into action.

After an hour of waiting Damian grew impatient and went to the cafe around the corner to get a drink. If you're wondering how he paid for it, well, he bought it with the money he got from his previous jobs. He might as well with the extra cash, right?

Damian strolled back down the sidewalk while chugging down his water bottle. Right when he was about to sit back down in his spot, he heard the comms go off.

"We have a report of armed men robbing the Jump City bank."

Damian's ears perked up at the information. "Finally, some action," he said to himself before rushing to the nearest public bathroom, a duffle bag in his other hand.

After changing into his new disguise, he fled from the bathroom and ran into a different alley, grabbing his locked to a pole motorbike. He had gotten it just yesterday and was thrilled to take it on a test drive. It was red with a black bird painted on the side. He didn't have his license to drive, considering he wasn't an American resident, but that's never stopped him from driving before.

He took one glance at himself in the store window before taking off. His new suit had a black and red cowl, a black kevlar tunic with a red bird design on the chest, red spandex pants, black boots, and a red cape. Instead of his usual katana, escrima sticks were being held by a holster on his back. The more he looked at himself, the more he realized how ridiculous he looked compared to when he wore his assassin attire.

Damian wasn't the only one staring; he could feel other people's questionable gazes on him. Despite his unease, this was perfect. He would definitely gain the Teen Titans attention now.

Damian ignored the funny looks he got and started up his bike and listened to the engine roar before taking off, heading to the bank.

—

Gunshots were heard from a block away. When he arrived, he carelessly parked his bike and scanned the area.

People were fleeing the building while gunshots were still heard inside. Police had the place surrounded with guns aimed at the doors.

Damian rushed into the building, ignoring the policemen behind him that were ordering him to stand back.

Inside the bank, the masked men were raiding the vaults behind the desk, shooting anyone at point blank that were trying to stop them. On the floor laid several sprawled out bodies of men and women, pools of blood surrounding them. This didn't bother Damian, he was used to the sight of that. But now, he would be trying to prevent this.

A masked man pointed his gun at Damian, "Stand down, or I swear I'll shoot!"

Damian stood his ground and reached behind him to pull his black escrima sticks off his back, prepared deflect every bullet that came his way.

With ease Damian leapt over the counter and took out the one who had aimed his gun at him, knocking the gun from his hand before he could fire a single shot. Damian had to act more careful now, because he knew the Teen Titans wouldn't take him in if they knew he killed. He needed to be a hero now. Or at least pretend to.

One of the other two men started shooting at him. Damian deflected every bullet with his sticks and took out the closest one, throwing his unconscious body at the other.

When all three men were knocked down, he turned his attention to the victims. All of them were deceased except for one woman who was sitting against the wall, twitching in pain as she held tightly onto her bullet wound.

Damian leaned down to her level and put her arm around his shoulder to prop her up. She took the offer and tried as hard as she could to walk. He didn't know how to comfort others, so he was silent while he did this.

Once he got her outside he made his way over to the ambulance. The crowd around him were clapping and praising him. The police rushed inside the building and contained the three criminals, taking them into custody while others covering the deceased bodies.

"My daughter..." the woman weakly spoke up, blood dripping from her bottom lip. Damian turned his attention to her. "She's in there... hiding in the bathroom... please, go help her."

After sitting her down in the ambulance and letting the paramedics take care of her, he rushed back inside to find the little girl. Inside the public restroom was indeed a little girl, shaking as she hid in a stall. Damian crouched down to her level and held out a hand. When she didn't take his offer and instead scooter farther away he let out a sigh. "I'm not going to hurt you," he assured her in a soft tone.

Those words were new to his vocabulary.

The girl hesitantly got up and hugged his torso. Damian wrapped his arms around her small frame and got up, carrying her outside.

"Maya!" A man called as soon as he spotted his child.

The girl perked up at her name. "Daddy!"

The father collected his child from Damian's grip. "Redbird saved me!" the little girl said, a smile on her face. Damian hadn't decided on a name for his new identity, so the name was strange to him.

"Well thank you, Redbird, for saving my wife and little girl," the father thanked him, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. Damian just gave a nod in response.

A swarm of news reporters were asking him questions, but the police took care of it and forced them to back up.

"Hey!" A voice called. Damian turned around to face who was yelling at him. It was Nightwing, or Dick Grayson, actually. He had done research on all of the Titans days beforehand. "You did amazing out there."

"I'm aware," Damian replied, letting some of his cockiness slip out by accident. Changing personalities was too hard. That would be the main flaw in his plan.

"Well, we would love to have another addition to the team," Starfire, or Koriand'r added. "We're the Teen Titans, if you didn't know."

Well, that was easy. It really wasn't hard to get on this team. They didn't even know anything about him.

Three other teens appeared beside their leader. Garfield Logan, also known as Beast Boy, Jaime Reyes, also known as Blue Beetle, and Raven. The two boys had a smile plastered on their face while Raven just stared at him with a vague expression.

"Sure, why not," Damian decided to answer, averting his gaze from the demon. He was afraid she'd catch onto his intentions with her psychic abilities. One slip up and it's game over.

"Wonderful!" Starfire cheered, smiling as bright as ever.

Nightwing raised an eyebrow underneath his domino mask. "What do we call you?"

Damian pondered the question for a moment before answering. "Redbird."

"Well, welcome to the Teen Titans, Redbird."