บท 81: Chapter 80: Unlikely Duo
Sora and Bruce stood opposite each other in silence, a stoic expression on Bruce's face while a calm one appeared on Sora's.
"What do you want to talk about?" Bruce asked, despite having an inkling on what it was going to be about.
"Don't play dumb. You know what I mean." Sora retorted, causing the cave to fall into silence once again.
"When did you find out?" Sora finally asked. Even without any clarification, Bruce knew what he meant by that question.
"Zatara first came to me to help him find his daughter. We had no idea where she disappeared to. For all we knew, she could have been kidnapped by one of the league's enemies."
"It wasn't too difficult to find her at your house. After Zatara's episode and your short display of power, I had to do some digging to find out who you were." Bruce spoke with Sora paying attention with no aim to interrupt.
"Someone knew I searching and was actively blocking information about you. Eventually I was able to bypass that and find out what it was that made you seem so familiar."
"All it took was a look at your mother's photo for me to figure it out. I wanted to meet you and tell you about but then you're 'incident' with Kaito occurred."
"Me telling you anything at that time might have made things worse on you mentally and emotionally." Bruce confessed, a look of regret emerged on his face as he continued.
"I'm not saying that I was right. I just wish I could've done something sooner." He finished as Sora's eyes closed in contemplation.
Logically, the man had a point. Had he come out to tell him that he was his father right after he killed Kaito, Gotham might have lost its protector that day.
There was also the fact that he himself wasn't aware that he had a child. Remembering what Hades told him about his mother's powers, he could only guess that she left him because of that.
"How did you two meet?" Sora asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"That's a bit complicated. I went to Japan to close a deal with a business partner at the time. Alfred took his sweet time in coming to pick me up from the meeting." He complained in nostalgia.
"She was looking for a cab to take home. That was where I met her. Somehow, we ended up talking. One thing led to another and I…fell in love." The man admitted as Sora raised a brow.
"She told me she already had a child but that wasn't an issue to me. For the first time, Bruce Wayne was ready to settle down. But then, she disappeared." He said in a sad manner.
"I tried everything I could to find her and wound up with nothing. She once talked about having friends in high places so my only guess was that those 'friends' were helping her stay hidden."
"I was heartbroken for a while after that. It took me a few months to finally get myself together and move on but it was never the same." Bruce finished as Sora digested everything.
"So Shinji and I were half brothers…" Sora noted with a sigh.
"I believe so." The man in front of him confirmed.
It didn't really matter to him. They were brothers in all that mattered. Something as insignificant as that wasn't going to change how he viewed him.
At this point, Sora was a bit stumped on what to do. Truthfully, he had no reason to blame the man, neither did he have the energy to assign blame aimlessly.
He had helped him with getting his patents to start his business. He'd also noticed his efforts to keep him away from the attention of the league.
Knowing you had a son out there that treated you like an acquaintance was quite painful. He had suffered the man enough.
With a sigh, his black eyes made contact with Bruce's blue ones as he spoke.
"I don't blame you." Sora said simply but to Bruce, it meant so much as his eye got a bit teary.
"There are things that will always be out of our control. I can't fault you for what you had no knowledge on." Sora added as a trail of tears began to leak from Bruce's eyes.
"Not a word of this to anyone..." The man threatened emptily to Sora's amusement.
"I refuse."
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A worried Alfred walked into the batcave to check on Bruce's condition. Though Sora's treatment seemed to be very effective, he still couldn't help but worry a bit.
Upon entering the cave, he was met with a confusing sight of a conscious and health Bruce standing and observing Sora who was experimenting on the toxin that he had extracted from the former.
The usually thin layer of tension that permeated the air when they were in the same room was barely felt at all as the two seemed to argue about something.
"I find it hard to believe that you allowed Joker of all people to get the jump on you." Sora said casually.
"It was an ambush. There was no evidence suggesting that he and Crane had recently been in contact." Bruce defended but Sora let up.
"The great detective Batman was outsmarted by a clown and a farm accessory. Quite interesting, is it not?" Sora shot back.
Despite the words going back and forth between them, there was no heat in them. Alfred could always read Bruce like an open book. For the first time in the past three years, the dark knight was finally truly happy.
"I hope I'm not interrupting something, sir." Alfred said as he made himself known.
Unsurprisingly, neither of them were even mildly surprised by his presence, already knowing he was there.
"You're not. Anything wrong, Alfred?" Bruce asked.
"Not particularly. I came down to see if you had woken up and it seems you're in perfect health. Shall I prepare something for you both to eat while you work?" The butler offered.
Bruce opened his mouth to decline but a quick stern look from Alfred had him sighing as he nodded in acceptance.
"I'm done." Sora said as he put down the equipment he was previously using.
"What do we know about this new toxin?" Bruce asked, turning his full attention to him.
"Well for starters, I can see from the samples of his previous formulas you showed me that this is leagues above what Crane used to make. It's a careful mix of his original toxin, a low dose of joker venom and another formula entirely used as a base." He explained as he held up a small beaker with a purple liquid inside it.
"This mixture is something different from anything you have. In short, it's a serum that violently enhances the body of whoever takes it." He told Batman who furrowed his brows.
"Side effects?" He asked as a grin emerged on Sora's face.
"Unpredictable visual mutation, mental degradation among other things. Whoever made this is a poor excuse for a scientist." Sora said, the grin not leaving his face.
"Your interest aside, that can't be good for anyone. Though it's possible that it was made by Crane, it doesn't fit his motive. He had no reason to do that but we can't rule it out." Bruce concluded only for Sora to speak.
"The other alternative is that there's someone else pulling their strings. A new player in the game." Sora added to which Bruce showed a grimace.
"I'm heading back to Tokyo. What are you going to do?" Sora asked as he dropped the beaker, patting his clothes down.
"I'm going to find the Joker and get him to talk. Then I'll find Crane and stop him from making more of this toxin." Bruce said as he moved to the display case which held his Batman outfit.
"Don't you want to wake up your sidekick?" Sora asked as the man quickly put on the outfit.
"I was thinking this would be just the two of us." He said as he turned back to Sora, pulling up his cowl.
"You in?" Batman asked, staring at Sora who let out a small smirk.
"Hmph. Think you can keep up, old man?"
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