Got Your Back, Always

III.XI

Hank stumbles into the batcave, "Present and accounted for." He grunts and falls to the ground.

Dawn rushes over, "Hank! What happened?"
Hank unbuttons his shirt to show the bomb attached to him, "Just get it out of me."

"Oh, my god. Is that a bomb?"

"It's a gift. From our pal Jason."

Gar walks in with Kory, "Oh, good. You found him." He notices the looks Dawn and Dick give him, "Or not?"

Dick and Dawn hoist Hank up and get him over to a gurney, Dawn scolds him, "You went to talk to Jason by yourself?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." He lays down, "Just give me a shot of whiskey and get the damn thing out."

Kory warns, "I'm all for not touching that thing until we figure out how it works."

Dick instructs, "Conner, take a look inside and tell us what we're dealing with."

"Yeah." He uses his x-ray vision and does as Dick says. "Whoa. This is pretty bitching."

Dawn shouts, "Conner!"

Conner clears his throat, "It has anti-retraction barbs that hold the device in place. Looks like it's embedded in the pectoralis major, right through to the aortic arch."

Hank groans, "No part of that sounded good."

"The engineering is incredibly nuanced." Conner goes over to the desk and grabs a sheet of paper, speed drawing it out. "Bomb's designed to tolerate insertion, not retraction. These barbs in Hank's chest, they have sensors. If those sensors detect too much force, it'll explode."

Dick asks, "What if we remove it surgically?"

"Same outcome. Once activated, it's designed to kill."

"That fucking little shit," Hank sighs.

"This whole thing's engineered to read EKG signals. The countdown isn't seconds. It's the number of heartbeats he has left."

"What do you mean "countdown"?" Dawn looks up at him.

Conner takes off the bombs casing, showing the number of heartbeats Hank has left. "When it gets down to zero-"

"Jason can't actually want him to die, right?" Gar shakes his head.

Dick's phone rings.

"I have a feeling we're about to find out," Kory says.

Dick answers it. "I'm listening."

"About time," Jason says. "How's my buddy, Hank?"

"Whatever you want, killing Hank is no way to get it."

"Still trying to tell me what to do?"

"Enough with the games. Tell me how we end this."

"50 million dollars in gold bars is being delivered at once o'clock to Gotham Central. If you want Hank old boy to stay in one piece, bring 'em to me."

"This isn't about the money for you. I could wire that right now and it would all be over."

"And rob Gotham of a good show, Circus Boy? Bring me the gold and I'll deactivate the device."

"Never gonna happen."

"Do it your way, Dick. That always turns out well."

Dick's phone rings, "Hello?"

"Hi, yes Mr. Grayson this is Doctor Khan."

"How is she?"

"She is fully stable, her latest MRI shows a steady increase in brain function. Her serum is doing its job beautifully."

Dick sighed in relief, "That is really good to hear."

"Now for the bad news, the MRI shows no uptick of activity in her brain stem, meaning her brain is awake but her body is still asleep. The two are not currently communicating in the way they should be."

"So that means..."

"It means she will remain in her coma until her brain can reconnect itself to the stem. We have no procedure nor drug that can reverse this."

"How- how long can it take?"

"This is common to see in long-term coma patients so it... it varies on from patient to patient. Could be two weeks to twenty years."

Dick took a breath in and thought for a few moments. He nodded, "Is there anything else you can do for her?"

"Other than making her as comfortable as possible, unfortunately no."

"Is there any way we can have her transferred to the Manor?"

"I'm sure I can have that arranged."

"Thank you, Doctor."

"Of course, Mr. Grayson."

Conner says, "NSA database, Interpol, I've searched everywhere for bomb specs matching Hank's device, no hits."

"'Cause you're not searching under Wayne Enterprises," Dick points out and presses a button. "Protocol: Computer Virus - Vigil."

Gar asks, "Bruce is making weapons to kill people?"

Dick uses the retina scanner, "Good question."

"Identification required."

"Dick Grayson."

"Access denied. Identification required."

His brows furrowed but he nodded, "Gray."

The computer chimes, "Database access granted."

"Sick!" Gar cheers.

"Search explosives, EKG, anything surgical."

"On it," Conner leans over and types.

"I synced it with Hank's device to keep track of how much time we have left," Gar explains.

"I see Cassie's taught you two well," Dick smiles gently.

Both boys grinned.

"I got a hit," Conner shows Dick the screen.

Gar reads, "Surgical EKG detonation implant, Wayne Tech. It's patented and everything."

"Specs are there?" Dick asks.

"Reading them now." Conner speed reads through all of them.

"Wait, to save Hank we have to go up against Batman technology?" Gar scoffs.

"It's designed to outperform the military's most sophisticated electromagnetic explosives."

Dick makes a face, "Any duplicates on the market, customer with a deactivator we can modify?"

Conner exhales, "Hank's was the first prototype."

"I need you to build a deactivator using these blueprints. You read through those schematics faster than any human ever could, you can do this."

Conner stops him, "Wait reading... reading is just assimilating other people's work. You want me to build something this complex in less than three hours?"
"Yeah."

Conner scoffs as Dick walks away. He turns to Gar.

The green-haired boy just shrugs, "You got this." He pats his friend on the shoulder and walks away.

Conner sighs and looks back at the screen.

"Right well, what would Cassie start with? Right gathering everything first," Conner started getting to work.