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Red Robin held up his hand, “Don't come any closer Stray.”
He paused, doing as Red said.
“Red? You okay?”
Red Robin, Tim, coughed and swayed with his arm still outstretched to him. Adrien didn't like how sick Tim suddenly looked.
“No,” Red started, “no I'm not okay. The box is radioactive. I've been exposed, so stay back and call for help.”
Stray's blood ran cold and he nodded stiffly, using his comm to get ahold of Batman.
Adrien remembered the group meetings on field safety. Everyone was sat down in a conference room and shown the same dreary slide show where it went through basic first aid and then field medicine. Moving on to more hero based applications like fear gas, pollen infections, and of course radiation poisoning.
He shuddered as he continued to call Batman.
The slides on radiation poisoning had not been good ones. Not in the slightest. It made him want to puke right there.
His comm came to life, “Stray, status report.”
Straight to business as always, “Mission failed, Red Robin has radiation poisoning to an unknown level. I've kept my distance but we're in need of transport out of here.”
Adrien heard Batman grunt a reply, though he knew Batman was worried. Red Robin and him were close and while him and Red hadn't shared identities yet, he knew that Batman was Red's dad.
Not long after, a ship arrived and Stray got on while a hazmat Batman went to get Red Robin. Batman returned shortly carrying an unconscious Red Robin.
“Is he going to be okay?” Stray couldn't help but ask.
Batman just grunted and sat Red down on a pull out cot, pressing a button on the wall that got the plane moving. Stray watched as Batman got to work getting Red out of his suit, sans mask, and an intravenous line going. Stray worriedly noted the redness of the skin.
He remembered the presentation on radiation poisoning and shuddered at the pictures that came to mind. Peeling and bubbling skin, liquefied internal organs, excruciating pain, and so much more. The worst part was that there was no returning. You couldn't treat it with an antibiotic and there was no method to lessen the effects of it.
Stray left his eyes trained on Red Robin.
Batman would never say anything to him, but he could see it. Years living in an emotionally repressed country taught him how to read subtle things. He could see the worry.
It scared him.
He watched as Batman injected something into Red's intravenous line.
“Stray?”
Red Robin called to him, Adrien shuffled closer.
“I'm here Red.”
Red Robin's eyes were closed but he smiled a little, his face flushed and eyebrows knitted together in pain. His eyes opened.
“Mom?” Red called.
And oh boy, Adrien was not equipped to deal with his work partner and friend, maybe more, call for his mother. In fact, he had zero clue if Red Robin's mom was even in the picture. Talk about awkwardness.
Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, “Uhm no, just me and Batman, Red. Sorry…”
Red Robin stared at the ceiling unseeing but at the same time seeing… something. Yet at the news that it was just them three he seemed to relax.
“Dad?”
Unfortunately for Stray, knowing Red Robin came with some downsides and if they made it through this, he was so giving Red a hard time for it.
Batman returned from the ship's cockpit and adjusted the intravenous line, “Robin.”
Red smiled, “Did you see Adrien, B? Isn't he great?”
Stray froze at the mention of his name. He wanted to believe that it was someone else, but with the way Batman glanced at him he doubted he was that lucky. He wasn't sure how Red knew his name… though some of the other heros and vigilantes he knew had mentioned that the bats knew everything.
Apparently everything extended to everyone. Thankfully Batman said nothing to him on the matter of his name. Though Adrien was pretty sure that it was because Batman already knew.
Stray tuned back in to see Red staring wide eyed at them both.
“You're still alive in my head Jason.”
He watched Batman freeze and look at Red Robin as if he were a bomb about to explode. Personally he thought it creepy as hell but clearly it was something significant to Batman.
Red Robin met his gaze and smiled, “Hi Adrien.”
Stray smiled, “Hi Red.”
Red looked confused for a moment before relaxing, “I never did tell you my name even though I knew your's. It's Tim.”
Adrien felt his mouth open in surprise, “Oh… Hi Tim?”
Tim, apparently, smiled.
“I like it when you say my name. Bruce won't be too happy but I want you to know. Y’know, in the event that I don't make it.”
Oh. Adrien didn't like that logic.
He frowned, “Well you're going to live. That way whoever Bruce is can be mad at you and I can be mad at you for secretly knowing my identity and so we can get ice cream together in our civies.”
Tim chuckled, “Bruce is my dad and going in our civies wouldn't work, I'm famous.”
Adrien forced himself to not marvel at the fact that apparently Batman was named Bruce and instead focus on the latter bit of Tim's sentence.
“Well I am too so we'll just run from the paparazzi together?” He offered.
Tim nodded a little and closed his eyes.
Stray was scared because he wasn't sure if ice cream would be enough…