[Comprehensive British and American] Family Matters

The third time Bruce walked to the door of Jason's room, he realized he wasn't alone.

Alfred seemed to think that the best route to go to the kitchen to fill up a pot of hot water and return to his room at three o'clock in the morning was to go around half of Wayne Mansion and pass Jason's door.

"Ah, good morning, Master Bruce." Wayne's butler seemed to have magical powers, he could wear his nightgown like a tuxedo, and Tero greeted Bruce naturally, as if the two of them were at the door of Jason's room in the early morning It's quite normal to meet by chance, "Would you like a cup of tea together?"

Bruce looked at Jason's closed door, as if hesitating whether to open the door to check Jason's situation, but after all, Alfred gave up the idea under the tactful persuasion: "Master Jason is no longer a young man. Baby, I'm sure he'd like a little more privacy."

"Then I'll trouble you, Fu." Bruce turned and walked to the kitchen first, "Can you make my cup stronger? I can't sleep anyway."

"No problem, sir." Alfred nodded solemnly, quickly prepared the tea set, and began to prepare tea for the two of them.

Bruce watched the old man's busy back silently. He had never told Ah Fu how much he was grateful to him.When his parents were shot dead, it was Afu who accompanied him through the days of nightmares; when he decided to become Batman, it was Afu who silently helped him clean and suture the wound; when he brought Dick and Jason back When he was at home, it was also because of Ah Fu who was in the middle to mediate that he was able to establish a relationship with the two children stumblingly.

When Bruce lost Jason and lost confidence in his ability to be a mentor and a father, it was also because of Afu's support that he was able to make up his mind to accept Dick's constant hints and win Tim from the Drakes. The guardianship of Tim, so that Tim can openly break away from that indifferent native family.

If there is no Afu, Bruce believes that he will do something that he regrets for the rest of his life when Damian appears.Because even with Ah Fu's efforts, Bruce couldn't make himself treat Damian gently. As long as he saw Damian's face that was printed out of the same mold as his own when he was a child, Bruce felt a deep entanglement in his heart: If he Being nice to Damian felt like betraying Jason, as if he gave Damian the love that belonged to Jason.Everyone would tell him it wasn't, but Bruce just couldn't get over his inner hurdle.

Even Jason's scene with the red hood, thanks to Ah Fu's intervention, prevented Bruce from directly labeling Dick as "bewitched and cured", giving the other party a chance to clarify the matter, plus Damian's testimony, and Barbara secretly hooking up with Tim in the middle of the night, quickly drew up such a plan.

"Ah Fu, have I ever told you how important you are to this family?" Bruce took the hot tea that A Fu had just made and nodded to the old man.

"Not today, sir." Alfred sat down opposite Bruce with his teacup, and the two exchanged a knowing smile.

The hot tea took away the chill of the morning, Bruce put down the teacup, looked down at the amber liquid shaking in the cup, and the white steam that gradually dissipated.

"I still feel like I'm dreaming. Tell me I'm not imagining this, Fu." Bruce's eyes lifted in the direction of Jason's room.

"This is not a dream, Master Jason is back." Alfred's calm statement, like a news report, did calm the restlessness in Bruce's heart.

But he still couldn't get rid of the unreal feeling of nothingness.Bruce knew it was because he didn't understand how Jason would be resurrected—what if there was a time limit?Like the magic of the fairy godmother in fairy tales, it will return to its original state after midnight.To Bruce, a living, healthy Jason was as unreal as a fairytale, and he couldn't afford the magic to suddenly disappear without warning one day in the future.

That's why he'd rather start his own quest to resurrect Jason from scratch.

In this way, even if there are any accidents in the future, Bruce at least has a direction to solve the problem.It won't be like now, he has no clue except worrying.

"Master Bruce, maybe we just need to accept this miracle with gratitude." Alfred, who knew Bruce far better than Bruce himself, easily saw through Bruce's troubles, and suggested softly, "Even if this is a limited Wouldn't you rather spend this precious time digging into the root cause than creating more memories with the young masters?"

"I understand the truth, but... alas..." Bruce pressed the heel of his palm on the brow bone and rubbed it, "I saw Jason's soul in another universe, Fu. I'm pretty sure that's not our universe , I searched in the league's database, I asked Clark to find it in his Kryptonian data, heck I even went to ask the green light! But the gem I saw does not exist in this universe. It means that there is a What if a force powerful enough to affect Jason—or certain people—across different universes?"

Bruce pushed back his chair and stood up and started pacing up and down, barely counting his worries on his fingers:

"Thalia used the Lazarus pool on Jason, duh. We all know what that pool does to the mind, and the 'nameless' and 'big caste' sound suspicious. Dick The information brought back is similar to what Tim knows. What Damian knows is only during Jason’s stay in the League of Assassins. Barbara has searched all over the world, but the information that can be obtained is almost zero. If this It is the enemy we have to face..."

Jason's voice came from the entrance of the kitchen: "Don't be cowardly, just do it!"

Bruce stopped, and Alfred turned around, watching Jason leaning against the wall with shirtless arms and raised the corner of his mouth at them: "There is a tea party early in the morning, do you mind adding someone?"

"Of course not, please wait a moment, Master Jason." Alfred immediately got up and went to the cooking table to make tea for Jason.

"Jason, it's only now..." Bruce looked up at the clock, "It's almost four o'clock in the morning, why don't you take a rest?"

"It's the same reason you didn't go to bed early in the morning." Jason shrugged and walked into the morning light, and Bruce realized that Jason had a whole... tattoo on his chest?He tried to understand those irregular patterns, but no matter how he compared it with the totem data in his mind, he couldn't find a concrete meaning.

"Ah, this is the trace of the fountain of purification." Jason lowered his head following Bruce's gaze, and slid his fingers casually across a relatively large pattern, "Want to see something cool?"

Jason gave a sly grin, overlapping with the skinny kid Bruce remembered.When he first came to the mansion, every time Jason found something he thought was very interesting, he would run to Bruce with such a smile and eagerly say: "Bruce! Bruce! I found a super cool thing, Do you want to see it?" Of course, whatever it is, it's unlikely that Bruce hasn't seen it, but he still makes an interested look and asks, "What is it?"

This time, Bruce was really curious about what Jason was going to show him: "Okay, what is it?"

"Watch it." Jason pulled out a chair and sat cross-legged, closed his eyes to adjust his breathing, and began to meditate.

As Jason's breathing gradually stabilized, the pattern on his chest also began to glow with purple light.Bruce held his breath, closed his eyes forcefully and opened them again, the light on Jason's chest still persisted.

"How about it, isn't it cool?" As Jason opened his eyes, the light on his chest faded away, "I can glow."

"I saw it, but how did it work?" Bruce stared intently at the patterns on Jason's chest. At this moment, they looked like a patchwork of irregular marks.

"No one knows." Jason poked at the marks, and murmured nonchalantly, "The marks themselves are the result of a purification ceremony, uh, this is part of the practice of a large caste, and whether or not they pass the ceremony is like a disciple entering a house and an ordinary man." The difference between disciples. But it is said that I am the only one who can shine. I am guessing that this must have something to do with the Infinity Stone... You know, it is the purple stone I grabbed in my hand when you promised me to take me home? "

"Of course I do." Bruce remembered how much damage the purple gem had done to Jason's soul. "Have you ever felt any unusual powers? Maybe we should go to the Batcave for a test, and this What's the matter with the purification ceremony? What kind of ceremony will leave such traces!"

Jason thanked Alfred, took the teacup with both hands, and drank the tea slowly.

"Jason!" Jason's casual attitude annoyed Bruce a little, "I'm worried about your situation. Everything you have experienced has already surpassed human imagination. There are too many variables that we don't know. What if something happens? I always have to know how to react."

"That's why I said you're a control freak, old man." Jason stopped drinking tea, still holding the cup, letting the heat warm his hands, "You worry about too many things! This universe is a mess, Any weird thing can happen in a second, we will never be able to be truly 'prepared'. Just like your emergency plan for Big Blue, in case he wants to slap you to death without warning What? He can burn through steel with a single stare. Do you really have time to take out kryptonite to deal with him? In case the computer turns a corner and plans to rush over and stab you to death right now, you have a way to immediately Use your contingency plan against him?"

Bruce wanted to say that he would discover Clark's anomaly first, he was always observing everyone, and he wanted to say that the chances of Barry doing such a thing were very slim, but in the end, Bruce still believed in Clark and Barry.His "contingency plan" is only to prevent superheroes from being controlled by the enemy, or when their abilities are stolen by the enemy. As long as he is given the opportunity to come up with a plan prepared beforehand, Bruce can reverse the adversity.

But Jason's assumption is: What if you don't even have this chance?

"Leave yourself alone, old man." Jason patted his chest, "I'm here in good shape, alive and kicking, instead of worrying about whether I will disappear in the next second, you should think about how to help me 'resurrect' '." Jason put down his teacup and made quotation marks in the air with his hands, "I have to show my fake ID to the boss when I buy a beer, is it so miserable?"

"About this, I've prepared a believable story, and I'll update it every year to add details." Bruce began to arrange in his mind to contact Vicki Weil and give her an exclusive news as a favor, "But don't think I'm going to let you go without restraint If you drink alcohol, you are not yet 21 years old, and it is the same if you are 21 years old."

"It's okay, I'll ask Dicky to buy it for me." Jason has no doubt that Dick will be happy to help, "In short, instead of wasting your brain to assume that I will die suddenly and have 101 possibilities of resurrection, why don't you help me think about it? How do you want to make trouble... Uh, I mean, create a topic. Anyway, I don't plan to die in a short time!"

Bruce knew Jason wouldn't volunteer to tell him anything about the resurrection.He guessed it wasn't one of Jason's fondest memories, but he still made a little note in his heart to remind himself to investigate further whenever he had the chance.

"I'll put that aside for now, but I need more information on this 'nameless'. Tim and Dick make them sound like Sauron's Nazgul, but there's no useful information beyond that."

"It sounds like a Ringwraith." Jason rubbed his chin, and was about to tell the story of Daquela, when Bruce's face suddenly changed, and he reached out and took out a Jackie from his nightgown pocket. A dark contraption Mori had never seen before.

"What's wrong?" Bruce's expression made Jason worry, no matter what the device showed, it was not a good thing.

"Arkham." One word explains it all.Bruce went straight to the Batcave without looking back.

"Group escape?" Jason automatically followed Bruce, and suddenly realized that he could walk one step behind Bruce effortlessly, without striding or trotting desperately.

"No, there's only one." But Bruce's eyes look like they're trying to catch a pack of beasts, not a single criminal lunatic.

If there was a lunatic that Bruce hated so much, Jason could only think of that one.Just thinking of that name made Jason feel sick, and lost his good mood all day. ?

"Let me guess, clown."

Bruce stopped at the entrance to the Batcave, turned around and looked at Jason with soothing eyes: "Listen, Jason, you don't need to interfere, I can handle it myself."

Jason understands Bruce's concern that it never ends well for victims to confront their perpetrators.But he still wants to see the clown, the murderer who killed him.There is one thing that he has to confirm personally, and if he confirms it one day later, he will not be able to let go of it one more day. ?

"I want to help." Jason bypassed Bruce and went down the Batcave first, "Unless you want to dig up Xiaohong and Dicky, I will go with you. My equipment is here, Nothing inconvenient."

Bruce watched Jason put on the red bat breastplate, knee pads and gun holster with a struggling expression.

"Communication channel?" Jason put on all the equipment, holding the hood and preparing to set up the intercom.

"Third." Bruce stared at the gun on Jason's waist for a while, his lips squirmed as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything, and silently changed into the bat suit. ?

The Batmobile roared out, and Jason sat quietly in his old position when he was Robin, feeling the difference in perspective. (He came back with Tim in the backseat earlier)?

Batman connected the black device to the computer of the Batmobile, which directly displayed the map and the red dots of the track, and calculated the shortest time-to-arrival path.Jason watched Batman gallop on the deserted streets in the early morning, gradually approaching the shining red dot, and began to digest this magical fact in his mind: "You put a tracker on the clown?"

"Yes." Batman stopped before the next turn and removed the tiny computer attached to his wrist from the tracking device.Jason put on his hood and prepared to follow on foot. ?

The signal took the two to a small and dilapidated warehouse. Judging from the garbage at the door, this was an unmanaged area.There were scraping sounds of things being dragged on the ground in the warehouse, as well as the metal brittle sound of iron chains hitting each other.

"Ah, it looks really good, hahahahahaha!" The clown's nervous laughter came from the warehouse, and a chill ran down Jason's spine, making him shiver.

Batman put his hand on his shoulder silently, and squeezed it with reassuring force.

The red hood shook his head slowly, took the pistol out of the holster and prepared it.Truth be told, he'd been worried the entire time that Batman was asking him to keep the gun, but until now Batman hadn't said a word other than to make a complicated look at his weapon.

And he was very sure that Batman knew that the effect of this shot would be severe.Several of the prisoners he had dealt with before were brought to court for trial.

"One, two, three robins~" The clown's out-of-the-ordinary singing sounded even more embarrassing under the echo of the warehouse, not to mention that he would stop nervously and laugh for a while every time he sang.

Batman took out his Batmark and Hook Gun, flew directly and kicked through the small window on the second floor of the warehouse and landed on the old metal guardrail, and threw a Batarang at the clown who was attracted by the sound he made, forcing him to leave whatever it is that you are fiddling with.

The red hood followed Batman's footsteps and landed next to the Dark Knight, pointing his gun straight at the Joker who was excited when he saw Batman. He was still wearing the orange uniform of the Arkham patient, and he hadn't had time to change into his standard one. Purple suit.

"Little Bat! You came so early!" The clown clenched his fists on his chest excitedly, and waved his hands excitedly when he saw the red hood, "Oh! Oh! You brought friends! Oh, what did you do? Why don’t you say it sooner? I’m still preparing the props to entertain the little bird, not the worshipers yet.”

"Worshiper?" Red Hood's tone was full of disbelief, "Are you talking about me?"

"Of course! Hey, but I have to say, when I used the name Red Hood, that outfit was really handsome." The clown said while tsk-tsk at the red hood outfit in front of him, "Nowadays, kids don't have any sense of taste. No. But it’s okay, Uncle J likes to teach children the most! If you don’t believe me, you can ask the little bat next to him, his last bird was not good, so Uncle J kindly taught him a lesson, I don’t want it to be bad The child has dragged down my dear little bat, right? He is so obedient now, rotten in the soil! Hahahahaha!"

Amid the clown's laughter, the red hood returned to the warehouse, and the clown beat him with a stick, making the same laugh.He didn't even know that his right hand holding the gun was already hanging down to his side, and the other hand was pressing on his collarbone—that was the first place where he was shattered.

Batman watched the movement of the red hood, and let out a low growl like that of an enraged beast from the back of his throat, and flew towards the clown from the railing.

This guy laughs too much.

He had to manually press the pause button—with his fist.