Revenge (Batfamily) - Sequel to Brother In Arms

Chapter 7 ~ A New Formula

"Ouch!"

"Hey, don't act like a kid. It's just a bruise."

"Uh, excuse me? I got punched by a dude who had a brass knuckles!"

"Alright, alright... But did you die?"

"What?"

"Answer the question. Did you die?"

"... No."

"So, stop whining!"

Kyle stared at Jason, his mouth as wide open as his injured cheek could allow him. He sighed and shook his head. Tim, who was still wearing his Red Robin sans the cowl, rolled his eyes and handed Kyle an ice pack with a smile. The latter thanked him and put it on his already swollen and reddening cheek.

"You did well, Kyle. Don't listen to Jason," Tim smiled as he sat next to the other young man and started to clean his bo staff with a cloth. "It happens to the best of us. It happened to me last year too, you know."

Kyle sighed and pressed the ice pack even more against his cheek.

"You're rusty, Kyle. Just face it," Jason said flatly. "And that's normal. You haven't been trained since last year." Kyle opened his mouth to retort but Jason didn't let him the occasion to do so. "Of course you still know the basis, but the rest is lost. You'll train with me and Jill every day from now on.Hey, I can see you sighing you know?" Jason's lips suddenly twitched upwards. "I hope you are ready to get sore muscles again."

Tim chuckled next to Kyle. He clasped his hand on the young man's shoulder before he got up and put back his bo staff on the iron table that was standing in the middle of the Batcave, right next to the massive computer and Bruce's suit.

Alfred approached next to Kyle. He asked the young man if he could examine his bruise and saw that, fortunately, his jaw wasn't broken, only badly damaged. He gave him a cream supposed to help resorb the bruise. The old butler then joined Bruce's side. The latter had been fulfilling his mission reports of the day. "Will you soon be done, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked in his usual calm tone.

"Yes. There's not much to say about those robbers anyway. They weren't professionals. We stopped them quite easily."

"Pff," Jason started, "They started shitting their pants as soon as they saw us coming."

"Language!"

Jason rolled his eyes, "sorry, Alfred." He then felt an urge to smoke. He started to search in his pockets for the small white packet and red lighter. When he finally found them, he brought one of the cigarettes to his lips and switched on the lighter. Before he was even able to light his cigarette, Alfred stole it from his lips and threw it in the trashcan. "Hey!"

"No one will smoke in this Manor as long as I'll be alive. Moreover, it's extremely unhealthy."

Jason raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "You know what else is extremely unhealthy?"

"Dying," Damian and Tim muttered evenly, earning an amused smile from Bruce.

***

The doctor Yann Basit had always been an honest man. He had been working in Gotham General Hospital and had been one of the most respected and renowned of his profession, especially because he knew, almost like a gift, how to cure any kind of poisoning. Thanks to this, he was earning his life pretty well and had his own little family living on the rich part of Gotham's outskirts in a medium modern terraced house.

Life was smiling at him until one day, men in black knocked at his door, threatened his whole family and forced him to work for their boss, a certain Vadim Vassili. Vadim had heard about his outstanding work on curating poisoning and had given him a job (forced him would sound more like what happened). Wanting nothing more than to protect his family, the doctor accepted.