Phantom Files

File 10: The Ward of Wayne

Sorry for the short and rough chapter, but read to the end!

How's Jake?" Joan asked me as she sat down at my table, setting her lunch on the table.

I stirred my cup of noodles, "Fine, still calling people by animals and just being him."

We were in the Staff Lunch Room, a quiet place if you didn't mind the distant screams and yells from the patients.

She nodded, "I used to be his psychologist, you know? Couldn't identify why he was acting the way he was. Signs showed to delirium, with the illusions and delusions he continuously experiences, but it couldn't have escalated that quickly without being influenced or even-"

I cut in, "Kristofferson is a conundrum, isn't he?" It was rude to intrude, but I wanted to de-rail her. As a therapist, I was there to be for him and fix him up. She was talking about her psychologist's work.

Two similar fields with alternative goals. It felt cheating if I didn't learn myself. Kristofferson was something I had to solve myself, and help myself.

She seemed to be struck by confusion but understood that I was purposely disrupting her.

After a few seconds, she spoke, "Quite..."

"You know, " I said, steering the conversation a little off. "I was a hostage in that bank heist yesterday."

I noticed a tense, most likely a past experience. I remembered how Aaron was the same when I first met him.  I honestly believed that everybody in Gotham has been affected by the manhandling in the city.

"But," I gave a smile, "Batman and Robin were able to swoop down and save the day." That seemed to put her at ease as I noticed her giving a smile back.

"They always do, it's an honest wonder on how they've been able to do this for so long."

I shrugged, "Who's to ever know? I'm pretty sure Gotham's hero'll never reveal his secrets. From what I know he's... more secretive than that Boy Scout of Metropolis."

Joan raised an eyebrow, "Boy Scout of Metropolis? Are you talking about Superman?"

"Well yeah, how else would you describe the man? He has pure Boy Scout behavior!" I took a slurp from my noodles, which were growing cold by the second.

"Well "hero" for one, "man of steel", "the Metropolis Marvel," and the list goes on." She gave examples. Honestly, I was jealous of all the cool nicknames the JL had when I was younger. The Dark Knight, Scarlet Speedster, King Of The Seven Seas! I looked up to those names.

"All I'm hearing is Boy Scout~" I said in a sing-song voice. She gave a small chuckle in return.

It was light-hearted chatter after that until the end of lunch. All thoughts of Kristofferson withered away as if nothing was a problem.

________________________

3rd Person

The cave was dreary as normal. It was somewhat lit, the bats were chirping above, and it had an eerie echo with every sound.

This was exactly how Damian felt that made the Bat Cave such a terrific place to train. After all, he was rather furious.

As he pummeled away at the training dummy, all he could think about was the choices he made.

Bruce was bringing him with him to Arkham Asylum. At first, it was exciting, but then he informed his young son that it was not for vigilante reasons.