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The Batmobile roars into the cave and Bruce jumps out as soon as it stops.
“Good evening, Master Bruce, is everything alright? You still have another two hours left… to patrol. My god. Is that?”
Bruce doesn't answer. He has to get
Jason
Red Hood to medical. Has to check his wounds, make sure there’s no major damage.
Bruce lays him on a gurney and starts the process of connecting a heart monitor. He’s probably going to need an IV, for pain medicine. He needs to check his ribs.
“Bruce!” a hand lands on his shoulder and he startles. He turns to see Alfred, looking at him with concern and a desperate hope.
“Who is this?”
“I don’t know.”
“He looks like…”
“I know. But we can’t be sure. I have to run some DNA analysis.” Bruce starts forward to do just that, but stops when Alfred puts a hand on his shoulder again.
“Take a breath.”
“I don’t have time.”
Alfred narrows his eyes, and Bruce’s shoulders slump.
“Now. Have you told the boys?”
“I don’t want to say anything until I’m sure.”
Alfred lifts an unimpressed eyebrow, and Bruce looks away. “I’ll take care of… the young man. You call Master Tim and Master Dick.”
Bruce opened his mouth to protest, but Alfred had already turned away.
“You need to use the restraints,” he grunted. “We still can’t be sure it it’s… And we know Red Hood is dangerous.”
Alfred paused but then nodded.
Bruce goes over to take a seat at the Batcomputer.
“Oracle, connect me to Red Robin and Nightwing.”
“...is something wrong, B?”
“No. I have information.”
He hears her sigh. “Sure thing.”
He hears a click then Nightwing’s voice comes through.
“What’s up, B? Has something urgent come up?”
“I need you both to come to the Batcave.”
“I thought you wanted me to track Black Mask?”
“I'm kind of in the middle of an investigation here in Bludhaven.”
“I have apprehended Red Hood.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Not that that isn’t great. But why do you need us at the Batcave for that?”
“Yeah, B, if he’s in Arkham why do I need to leave Blud?”
“He’s at the Batcave.”
Another moment of silence, then…
“What!”
“What were you thinking–”
“He’s a criminal–”
“Why would you–”
“That doesn’t even–”
“Quiet!”
Bruce took a moment to take a deep breath and consider how he wanted to say this. “When Red Robin and I went to investigate Black Mask, I found him torturing someone. Black Mask was able to flee before I got to the room. When I went to check on the victim I saw that it was Red Hood.” He paused, but continued before either of his sons could interrupt. “He wasn’t wearing a mask. And he looks like… You need to come to the cave. I don’t want to say anything else till we can be sure. But…” he paused again, “you’ll both want to be here.”
No one said anything for a moment and Bruce was afraid that he hadn’t said enough, that Dick wouldn’t come.
“I’ll be at the cave in ten minutes.” Tim answered.
Dick sighed. “I’ll be over there in half an hour.”
“I’ll see you then.” Bruce signed off of his comm and slumped back in his chair. He should go check on Alfred. See if everything was going alright. Check the DNA test. But he was so tired.
He’ll give himself five more minutes.
Then there was work to be done.