[Comprehensive British and American] Family Matters

Visiting Lincoln March, the most favored candidate for the next mayoralty, the wounded man who had just narrowly escaped a bizarre assassination, should not be an easy task.

The police guarded the door of the ward and refused all visitors except the medical staff. Even the reporter could only get the statement drafted by the campaign team's public relations from March's assistant.

But in Gotham, a lot of things are easier if your last name is Wayne — which is why Jason and Tim can stand by Lincoln March's hospital bed with sympathy fruit bouquets.

"You're so polite." Lincoln leaned on the upright hospital bed, with a breathing tube inserted in his nose, and smiled wryly at the overly exaggerated condolence fruit, "Your father just came to visit, now I don't have to worry During the hospitalization, I didn’t eat enough fruit.”

"Trust us, we have a dad who loves extreme sports. We know very well what patients in the hospital crave most." Tim looked at the bouquet cut from fruits and winked at Lincoln. food."

"I thought the patient meals in this hospital were pretty good?" Lincoln's hand twirled around the fruit basket, and finally picked up a bamboo stick with a cantaloupe ball inserted into his mouth, "Oh, I understand your That’s funny, I never thought cantaloupe was so delicious.”

Tim is in charge of acting as the well-behaved and caring young master Wayne, smiling and discussing with Lincoln how bad the hospital meal is, and the joke that Bruce has peeled a large sum of money to sponsor the hospital to improve the meal.

Jason, as always, played the shy literary youth. He waited until Tim and Lincoln's question about the sick meal came to an end before he said, "Mr. March..."

"Just call me Lincoln." Lincoln picked a chocolate-wrapped strawberry from the fruit bouquet and handed it to Jason, "I may run for mayor, but I'm not the kind of official type."

"Thanks, Lincoln." Jason squeezed the bamboo stick out of Lincoln's hand, and bit off the chocolate strawberry on top.

"That's right, young man, don't be so tense!" Lincoln smiled like a kind uncle, and when Jason was chewing strawberries, he didn't forget to ask Tim to eat some fruit blossoms as well.

Jason rubbed the bamboo skewer with his fingertips, and after taking two deep breaths, he suddenly bowed his head to Lincoln in pain: "I'm sorry, Lincoln, this is all my fault."

"What are you talking about, kid? How could this be your fault!" Lincoln looked quite surprised, he even wanted to get up from the hospital bed to grab Jason's hand, but the throbbing pain of the wound made him have to ouch Whoops, half lying back on the bed, "Listen, kid, none of this is your business..."

"Of course it's none of my business. It's because I put forward the plan to transform Gotham! That's why the killer was attracted..." Jason looked as if he was about to cry out of self-blame.

"No! There is nothing wrong with your plan. The Wayne Group is doing something good for the city, and the bad thing is the Owl Court!" Lincoln looked extremely serious when he said about the Owl Court, "Listen to me, boy, you and you Father, what you are doing will benefit generations to come in this city, it is a great cause, do not back down from this threat."

Jason lowered his head and pretended to be frustrated, and secretly exchanged a look with Tim.

Tim gives a teenage sniff at an urban legend: "Lincoln, you don't really believe that nursery rhyme is true, do you? We've seen the surveillance tape, and the killer talked about the court of owls, but it must be some gangster thinking about it." Play tricks on old horror stories to create panic!"

"No, the court is real." Lincoln turned his head to look at the floor-to-ceiling windows next to him, his eyes were a little empty, "I really shouldn't tell you this, but... well, I was 'warned' once, from people Whispers. Then one day when I woke up, an owl appeared in my apartment, perched on my closet, and stepped on a pile of bones. I didn’t believe it at the time, but in Wayne Tower After the incident... I believed it."

"You mean, the court is really watching everyone like in the ballad?" Jason looked around anxiously, especially outside the window, as if he was looking for an owl that didn't know where he was hiding, "That's why they Knowing that Bruce and you went to Wayne Tower for a secret meeting during maintenance? It's not the first choice for ordinary people to hold meetings, let alone when the tower is closed for maintenance every year."

"The word secret meeting sounds like we are planning illegal activities, but I really want to warn Bruce about the court, so I asked him to choose a place where there will be no idle people waiting." Lincoln waved his hand to signal him The current tragedy, "Look at what I have become now."

"But... this could also be the collusion between the insider and the opposing gang?" Tim still seemed stubborn and refused to believe the urban legend, "Besides, if there are really courts, why has no one ever seen them? It's just that He is an assassin in a strange costume..."

"Hey, I'm afraid this is what the court wanted. They made everyone think it was just a legend, so who would doubt the urban legend when they made the move?" Lincoln shook his head and looked at Tim worriedly. , "You young people think that there is no such thing as the owl court, but if you see more things, you will find that there are more secrets in this world than you think."

The air in the ward was silent, Jason suddenly asked, and asked in a high-pitched and unnatural voice: "Can I have another fruit flower?"

As if the embarrassing atmosphere had been forcibly resolved, the three of them started talking nonsense about some irrelevant court topics around a pot of fruit flowers.It wasn't until the nurse came in to tell the hospital that visiting hours were over that Jason and Tim said goodbye to Lincoln and left through the back door of the hospital.

As soon as he left the hospital, Jason's uneasy breath disappeared, and he took out the evidence bag from his pocket and handed it to Tim. There were a few bamboo sticks in it, all of which were used by Lincoln.

"It's a pity that Catwoman didn't accept you as an apprentice." Tim admired Jason's stealing skills, took the evidence bag and stuffed it into his pocket, put on his helmet and jumped on the back seat of the motorcycle, "You What do you think of Lincoln?"

"It's hard to say, for a politician, he seems too 'pure'." Jason also put on his helmet and was about to start the engine, "Even when we hinted that he might be the'insider', he directly Admit that I asked Bruce to choose a remote location."

"Whether he's innocent or tricky, I'll find out about the eight generations of Mr. March's ancestors." Tim patted his pockets, leaned forward and hugged Jason's waist tightly.

"When I came here, I wanted to ask, why are you hugging me so tightly?"

"You ride fast, I'm afraid of falling off."

"I can ride faster than this during the night watch, and you can still play with the computer on your wrist."

"Hey, but I'm a good student Timothy now, I have to play a full set of acting! Speaking of which, the frightened eyes you had in the ward just now are awesome."

...It made sense, and Jason found that he had no way to refute it.

***

When Harry's circus came to Gotham, Dick always avoided him subconsciously.

Don't get me wrong, it's not because he has dissatisfaction or resentment towards the circus. On the contrary, Dick misses his days in the circus from time to time, rehearsing shows with other young actors of his own age, that is the most worry-free time for him Carefree time.

But if you put the circus and Gotham together, Dick can only think of that tragic night, parents lying on the stage, limbs twisted in strange positions, there were blood everywhere, and screams from the audience .

As if things weren’t messy enough, Dick had just greeted his old friends in the circus, and he heard that the old head, Mr. Harry, was dying. Before he died, he hoped to see the bad news of Dick in person, but Mr. Harry was too ill to tour Gotham with the circus, which meant that Dick had to leave Gotham during this stressful time.

"Are you sure?" Dick tried his best not to express too much nervousness in his voice, "What if the other party attacks you during the day again? Not everyone has Bruce's luck to escape every time. "

"It's okay, B has found more traces of owls, and according to this progress, they should be able to catch up to their old nest soon." Jason's voice was full of echoes, and it should be in the process of going down the Batcave, "Go and see Look at your old regiment leader, save time and leave a regret later."

Although Jason said so, Dick still felt that all of this was too coincidental, as if everything was strung together and staged according to the schedule: "If anything happens..."

"I'll let you know, I know, I know. God, you're Nightwing, not an old hen!" Dick could imagine Jason rolling his eyes on the other end of the phone.

If God gave Dick another chance to choose again, he would definitely not leave Gotham to see Mr. Harry for the last time.He had avoided the circus all his life, so why not hide for a few more months?

That way he wouldn't need to know that his first home hid such a sinful secret.

But at this moment, Dick is holding the old notepad he found under the stage of the circus. The cowhide cover and the yellow pages inside can tell how many years the note has been destroyed. There was a name written, starting with "William Cobb" and ending with "Richard Grayson."

He was planning to report the strange discovery here to B, and the latest information on his phone made him fall into an ice cellar——

"MIA, B, hurry back."

Waiting for him in the Batcave is Batman's Universal Belt.The red hood was found at the last place where Batman disappeared, floating in the sewage of the sewer, cut off by someone with a sharp weapon, together with the batarangs, smoke bombs and breathing filters that Batman hid everywhere on his body.

This means that Batman falls unarmed into the hands of the enemy.

On the second night of Batman's disappearance, Jason stopped Nightwing, who was about to change into a night patrol, at the stairs of the Batcave: "I have a clue, are you coming?"

Of course, Dick couldn't refuse. He was about to say that he would come soon after changing his uniform, but Jason threw another uniform into Dick's arms: "Very well, let's get dressed."

"But this is..." Dick looked down at the uniform in his hand, it wasn't the Nightwing uniform he was familiar with, but a bat suit.

Jason smiled at Dick, it was a sneer without any kindness, ready to kill: "Our mission is to infiltrate and infiltrate, location: Owl Court."

Only then did Dick notice that Jason was not wearing his usual red bat armor, but the same bat suit as his own.

"Didn't the owl want to catch the bat?" Jason adjusted his gauntlets and put on the hood, "Let them let the horses come over!"