"Ouch!"
"Hey, don't act like a kid. It's just a bruise."
"Uh, excuse me? I got punched by a dude who had a brass knuckles!"
"Alright, alright... But did you die?"
"What?"
"Answer the question. Did you die?"
"... No."
"So, stop whining!"
Kyle stared at Jason, his mouth as wide open as his injured cheek could allow him. He sighed and shook his head. Tim, who was still wearing his Red Robin sans the cowl, rolled his eyes and handed Kyle an ice pack with a smile. The latter thanked him and put it on his already swollen and reddening cheek.
"You did well, Kyle. Don't listen to Jason," Tim smiled as he sat next to the other young man and started to clean his bo staff with a cloth. "It happens to the best of us. It happened to me last year too, you know."
Kyle sighed and pressed the ice pack even more against his cheek.
"You're rusty, Kyle. Just face it," Jason said flatly. "And that's normal. You haven't been trained since last year." Kyle opened his mouth to retort but Jason didn't let him the occasion to do so. "Of course you still know the basis, but the rest is lost. You'll train with me and Jill every day from now on.Hey, I can see you sighing you know?" Jason's lips suddenly twitched upwards. "I hope you are ready to get sore muscles again."
Tim chuckled next to Kyle. He clasped his hand on the young man's shoulder before he got up and put back his bo staff on the iron table that was standing in the middle of the Batcave, right next to the massive computer and Bruce's suit.
Alfred approached next to Kyle. He asked the young man if he could examine his bruise and saw that, fortunately, his jaw wasn't broken, only badly damaged. He gave him a cream supposed to help resorb the bruise. The old butler then joined Bruce's side. The latter had been fulfilling his mission reports of the day. "Will you soon be done, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked in his usual calm tone.
"Yes. There's not much to say about those robbers anyway. They weren't professionals. We stopped them quite easily."
"Pff," Jason started, "They started shitting their pants as soon as they saw us coming."
"Language!"
Jason rolled his eyes, "sorry, Alfred." He then felt an urge to smoke. He started to search in his pockets for the small white packet and red lighter. When he finally found them, he brought one of the cigarettes to his lips and switched on the lighter. Before he was even able to light his cigarette, Alfred stole it from his lips and threw it in the trashcan. "Hey!"
"No one will smoke in this Manor as long as I'll be alive. Moreover, it's extremely unhealthy."
Jason raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "You know what else is extremely unhealthy?"
"Dying," Damian and Tim muttered evenly, earning an amused smile from Bruce.
***
The doctor Yann Basit had always been an honest man. He had been working in Gotham General Hospital and had been one of the most respected and renowned of his profession, especially because he knew, almost like a gift, how to cure any kind of poisoning. Thanks to this, he was earning his life pretty well and had his own little family living on the rich part of Gotham's outskirts in a medium modern terraced house.
Life was smiling at him until one day, men in black knocked at his door, threatened his whole family and forced him to work for their boss, a certain Vadim Vassili. Vadim had heard about his outstanding work on curating poisoning and had given him a job (forced him would sound more like what happened). Wanting nothing more than to protect his family, the doctor accepted.
And that's how he ended up working for a terrorist.
The man wasn't even sure he would see his family again, but he liked to believe they were living their lives without him, keeping their little habits and more importantly, that they were safe and sound. Or that's what his new boss had guaranteed him. The doctor knew his family would be safe as long as his work would satisfy Vassili.
So when his boss showed up, his attack on Chicago successful but not satisfying enough for him and started to beat him up in front of all the other people inside the warehouse, the only thing he could think about was his family. He begged Vadim to let him live. He promised him he would improve the gas' formula. Knowing how valuable Basit was for him, Vadim accepted the offer. Usually, it wasn't his type to be so kind, and it was the last time he would be...
After Vadim spared him, Yann Basit immediately went back to work. He didn't even took some time to recover after all the blows he had received from his boss. His white coat was covered in blood but he didn't care. He only wanted to protect his family at all costs. He worked days and nights, sleeping only two or three hours maximum, testing his new formula on each of his guinea pigs. After only a week of manipulating the formula unceasingly, he finally started to obtain some positive results.
His face and his body still bruised, he knocked at Vadim Vassili's office's door and announced his progress. The other man listened to him attentively, his hands curled into a fist in front of his mouth. When Basit was done, the brown haired man got up and slowly walked towards the doctor. He put both his hands on the doctor's shoulders and looked at him right in the eyes and simply said with a smirk, "Excellent work, doctor Basit."
***
A tribute for all the victims of the Chicago attacks was given exactly one week after the terrible event. The whole world showed its support to the families and paid an homage to all those who perished.
464. This was the final number of victims. A minute of silence was observed throughout the whole world.
The investigation, even after one week, was still leading nowhere. The police found nearly nothing and Tim became even more eager to directly go to Chicago to investigate by himself. He told no one about it though. He wanted to go by himself and that's exactly what he did.
As soon as he was assured everyone in the manor was asleep, he packed some clothes and his Red Robin suit in the largest bowling bag Bruce had, tossed it on his shoulder, left a note on his nightstand and left at the wheel of his own car, a red tuned Ford Focus RS. He threw the bowling bag on the backseat and silently drove away from the manor, determined to discover exactly what happened.
However, what he hadn't noticed, was that Damian had been woken up by the floor creaking just in front of his bedroom's door as someone stepped on it. The young boy had immediately jumped on his feet and had half-opened his door. He had caught sight of Tim walking down the Manor's stairs, a large bag tossed on his shoulders.
Damian frowned and, out of curiosity, followed his brother silently. He knew exactly which planks were creaking on the wooden floor and carefully avoided them. When he saw Tim throwing his bowling bag on his car's backseats, Damian stopped thinking and immediately ran to the Batcave. He grabbed Dick's old backpack that was hanging on the opened door of this latter's old locker and immediately shoved his Robin suit and equipment inside of it. He climbed back the cave's stairs four by four and noticed that Tim wasn't around his car anymore.
Titus, Damian's Great Dane, had followed the young boy silently. He sat just next to him, tilted his big head and gave him a questioning look. Damian gave a small pat on the dog's large head and crouched next to him.
"Don't worry, Titus, I will be fine. Even with Drake." The Great Dane let out a small whine and licked Damian's hand tenderly. Damian opened his arms to take his dog into a tight hug. "See you, take care of Father and Pennyworth." Titus stared at Damian with his big smart eyes. "Now go to bed."
Titus obeyed and silently went back to his dog bed. Immediately after, Damian rushed towards Tim's car.
Without thinking, the young boy swiftly opened the Focus' trunk, threw the navy blue backpack in it and immediately jumped in the trunk afterwards. He managed to close the trunk before Tim came back and wondered where on Earth his brother was going. moreover, he was surprised to see that he was small enough to fit inside the narrow trunk of the Focus.
As Tim came back, closed his door and started the engine, Damian asked himself if it really was a good idea at last...
________
So, here you can see Tim's red Ford Focus RS. I saw one like this one day and as I was looking for a car to give to Timmy, I thought this one would be great (I don't know why) xD
I hope you liked this chapter and as usual, thank you for reading :D