The Dark Knight had been spending the last three hours, relentlessly scouring worldwide networks for any information on diseases or illnesses with the same symptoms Robin had. So far, he hadn't found one that fit the young hero's exact ailments.
He started by limiting the search to North America, but after coming up with no results, he expanded it to South America, all the way to Africa and Asia.
That's when he came across an article about a recent outbreak in Uganda, Africa. It was a deadly disease that currently had the whole country of Uganda and the surrounding areas in panic and fear. The disease had been dubbed as the "Aliosum" disease by African scientists and called 'The Breathless Reaper' by locals in the area it first broke out in.
The origin of the disease had not been discovered, nor does it look like it will be anytime soon, judging by the recent reports. The only thing these people actually seemed certain about was the fact that it spread through water and it wasn't contagious.
The symptoms were listed as followed in a specific order:
-Unexplanable exhaustion
-Rapidly rising or falling body temperature
-Headaches
-Sensitivity to noise or light
-Hyperventilation
-Difficult breathing
-A weakening heartrate
Those were the main symptoms all the victims had in common, though some of them had more, but those weren't listed. So far, no cure had been made and the disease had left no survivors in its wake.
The victims who caught it, all died within two weeks after being infected, always from suffocation due to their lungs not functioning the way they should. They always died from difficult breathing before their weakened hearts could actually stop on it's own.
Uganda was a rather poor and underdeveloped country. The people who were victims to the disease, all lived in small villages, away from any cities, medical help or electricity. They all died within two weeks. Dick was more privileged. He has medical assistance only a call away and Black Canary would make sure the boy always has an oxygen mask nearby to help when he can't breathe properly.
Currently, the only thing that could kill him was his weakening heart. The articles said that if the victims hadn't died from suffocation, their hearts would've stopped only a week later.
That meant Dick had three weeks instead of two, but his symptoms had started two days ago, which left the boy two weeks and five days left to live. Oh God...
Batman contemplated, scouting the web again for a different ailment, but decided against it after thinking it over. If he hadn't found another one already, then it probably didn't exist. He would be wasting precious time where he could be trying to find a cure to save his dying son's life.
Though right now...there was one question that was bothering him the most...how the hell did Dick catch a disease all the way from Uganda?