Wormholes Are No Fun

Chapter 2

Dick rocked back and forth in his seat, filled with anticipation. "Is he going to be alright?" Matt had been under Dr. Tompkins' care for a while, with no word on his condition being sent to Dick as of yet.

"I don't know chum. It looked like the Court had him for a while, but he was strong enough to instigate the escape, right? That means he's strong. Are you sure you're okay?" Bruce asked, inspecting his son's bruised arm.

Dick pulled away. "I'm fine. They didn't do anything to me. I was roughed up a bit, but nothing bad. I wasn't injected with anything either if that's what's worrying you. Did you find out who exactly Matt is?"

Bruce rubbed his temples and sighed, "No, not yet, but I've got Tim on the job. So far it seems like he doesn't exist. His face or prints aren't in any data base I looked at."

"The Court can make a person disappear, easily," Dick snapped.

"Yeah, I know. We'll just have to wait to see what Tim can find. Leslie should send an update soon, so you might want to stay awake."

Dick blinked his eyes open blearily, not realizing that they had closed.

"What do you thi—" Dick us cut off by Jason and Damian loudly entering the room.

"So how're you doing Dickie?" Jason asked, plopping himself down on a nearby chair.

"I'm fine! I've said it like a hundred times already!" Dick groaned exasperatedly.

"Whatever. Have any word on our mysterious friend yet?" Jason asked, pulling something out of his pocket.

"No cigarettes Jason! And no, there's been no word on him yet. Tim is still looking for identification," Bruce said, looking very tired.

"I looked at the security footage and Dick's friend is very skilled. He has my respect. He would make for a good ally. Now then Dick," Damian said turning to face his brother, "I am quite disappointed with how you fought. Your friend had to carry most of the load and was the one that started the escape. I am surprised that you didn't break out earlier."

"Damian..." Bruce admonished.

"That's just him showing that cares," said Jason, laughing.

Damian huffed and then continued, "I am pleased though on the outcome of this adventure. Do try to not get captured next time. Do we know yet what was wrong with his eyes? I know Tim was curious when he first came upon him."

"I'm no doctor, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a hell of a concussion. His eyes were really unfocused. I'm not sure though, Leslie will be able to tell us. Chances are he is concussed. He could also have been experimented on by the Court. If he does have any sort of abilities, there is the matter of whether or not he was like that before the Court," stated Bruce.

"Maybe the Court was experimenting on him to try to find away to improve the senses of Talons. Like maybe giving them owl vision," suggested Jason.

"Maybe. We'll just have to wait to see what happens when he wakes up."

At that moment Leslie walking in and motioned for them to stand up and follow her.

"He has sustained a lot of injuries, but he'll be fine in the long term. He is extremely malnourished though. Bruce, I emailed over to you what injuries he has. I also gave him a look over and he seems completely human to me. Not alien, not talon," she summarized after reading through her clip board.

"That clears up one question I guess. Did you put out a blood test? The Court might have injected him with electrum," Bruce asked.

Leslie answered, "I did, but it'll take a while until we have results. I also checked his eyes for the concussion you mentioned and while yes, I'm pretty positive that he has one, his eyes didn't help me find that out. I found that his eyes have some dangerous chemical on them. I don't know what it is yet, it's in the lab. His eyes don't react to light. Like at all. I think he's blind."

A sharp intake breath could be heard from Dick. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Pretty sure, but I'll double check when he wakes up. Think it was the Court?" Leslie asked

"Probably. They're always looking to enhance the Talons and things always go wrong before they go right. Chances were they forced an drug on him and it had the opposite effect they were looking for," said Bruce.

"But Father, if he is blind, how was he able to fight so well? Not to say the blind can't fight, but well... you definitely need to see to be able to survive the Court of Owls. Most seeing people can't do that anyway," said Damian.

Bruce looked thoughtful.

"Why don't you ask him?" Jason suggested, bringing everyone's attention to the ruckus coming from Matt's room.
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The first thing Matt noticed when he reached awareness was how hard was is to establish where he was in his mind. All of his senses felt dull, probably because of drugs. Not being able to sense where you are after trying to escape a cell is scary. It is even more scary if you have no friends to comfort you. Even though his senses were dulled, Matt could tell that he was alone in whatever room he was in.

Feeling the urge to escape whatever strange setting he was in, Matt stood up and was immediately hit by a wave of dizziness. He groped around until he found a rail to use for balance. After that, he found something sticking into his arm, probably an IV, and pulled it out. Matt stepped forward and tried to hear his way around the room, which was rather difficult to do after being pumped full of drugs.

The few objects that Matt had tripped over, fell quite loudly, but he was still able to find his way through the door undisturbed. In the hallway, Matt could hear people rushing towards him, but was still too drugged to determine who they were.

"Hey, Matt you need to calm down!" said one of the voices, bringing Matt's attention to his fast paced breathing and clenched fists.

The voice was familiar. "Dick?"

"Yeah, it's me," Dick answered.

"Where am I?"

"You're somewhere safe. We're with my family. Are you alright with going back to the room you were in earlier? I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to, but you need to rest."

"Oh, yeah sorry. I just didn't know where I was and freaked out."

"Yeah I get that."

Matt walked back to the room where he was before and sat on the bed while he heard others file into the room after him.

"Hello Matt, my name is Leslie and I'm a doctor. Would you mind if I checked your eyes?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Umm yeah, I guess. My eyes won't react to anything though, I can't see."

The doctor made a humming noise. "We guessed, just had to make sure."

Another voice, gruffer and suspicious, cut in, "How did you find your way back, without tripping or bumping into anything? You're not familiar with the layout and you don't have a cane or a guide dog."

Matt laughed, ahh the age old question. "I heard my way around."

"What?!" said the gruff voice, incredulous.

Another voice spoke, a child's "You are a master! I demand we spar!"