Counterparts - A DC Animated Fanfic

- 12 -

 After the fight had ended, Damian was immediately taken to the Med-bay, or at least he thought he was, he drifted in an out of conscious moments after the fight ended, the moments he was semi-conscious, he couldn't tell where he was, due to everything being blurry and sounding muffled.

The first time he was fully conscious since the end of the fight, he was lying face down on a makeshift hospital bed, with the excruciating pain in his back had diminished to a dull ache, he went to wipe some of the sweat of his face, but his hand made contact with his mask instead, suddenly relieved that his identity was still intact.

"How are you felling?" - A voice asked, carefully flipping onto his back, he met face to face with an elderly woman wearing a lab coat.

"Fuzzy." 

She chuckled. - "That means the pain killers are working."

Taking a closer look at the woman, Damian noticed how strangely familiar she was, it was weird, since everyone he knew was either dead, imprisoned, or currently working as a superhero/vigilante in another area in the world. 

"Do I know you?"

"Did you ever go to one of my clinics?" - She peeled off her bloody surgical gloves and threw them into the bin.

Things clicked when she said that. - "You're Leslie Thompkins." - He remembered reading an article in the Gotham Times about how the humanitarian opened many free clinics across Gotham's poorest areas.

"Yes I am." 

One question racked his mind. - "Why are you here?" - He was genuinely curious, what had happened for her to go from running free clinics in Gotham, to being a doctor in some underground fight club in Jump City.

"Uhh..." - A knock at the door saved her the awkward explanation, with Noah popping his head through the door, before entering when he saw Damian awake.

"Great you're awake! We need to talk."

"I'll leave you two to your own devices then." - Dr. Thompkins excused herself from the room, leaving the pair alone to talk.

Noah walked in with a giddy smile, but it quickly fell when he noticed the condition his friend was in, the entire top portion of his back was wrapped in bloody bandages, the coat and undershirt he was wearing was lying beside him, each with a large hole cut in them, the hole coming from the part of the clothing that fused with his back and to be cut around so they could get to his back.

"You ok?"

Damian slid off the stretcher and onto his feet, holding his aching side as he did so. - "I'm Fine."

Noah stared at his friend who was holding in an pained groan. - "Well you don't look fine." 

"Well I did just fight a guy who weaponized electricity." - He growled back.

"You did it for a noble cause, though." 

"Yeah." - Damian held in another groan. - "Clearing your debts is a noble cause." 

"Thanks for that." - Noah remarked, fiddling with his glasses. - "But I did get something out of this... apart from my debts cleared."

"What?" - Damian asked slipping on the undershirt with a hole in it.

He pulled a notebook from his pocket and tossed it to Damian. - "Information." - He replied, watching as Damian's eyes went wide as he flipped through the book filled with hastily scribbled facts.

"If any of this is true.."

"It is." - Noah interrupted. - "It all is."

"Then this not only could stop the war... but put away some of the biggest criminals in the city!" - He said pulling on his coat, and headed towards the door, with Noah following behind, they almost made it to the elevator before they were stopped by Dr. Thompkins.

"Where are you going?" - She asked, blocking there path to the elevator. - "You sustained major injuries and need treatment."

"I'm fine." - Damian repeated, speaking through clenched teeth.

"Fine? You currently have an wound which could easily get infected and have multiple broken bones, if they're left untreated they could cause serious pain or heal improperly." - She warned, counting off the issues and their implications on her fingers.

"I know the risks." - He pushed past her, but she stomped back ahead and blocked him with her arm.

"They you know you need treatment."

He took a deep breathe. - "I'll get treatment, but at the moment, I really need to do something." 

"Fine." - She said dropping hr arm and letting him pass by. - "But you have to come back here so I can examine you myself.

"Why?" - He asked stepping into the elevator.

"Because I won't have another death on my conscious." - She spat out before the elevator doors closed.

---------------

 Damian arrived back at Titan's Tower a little past 1 in the morning, he'd gotten a taxi back with Noah, but he'd gotten out about a block away from his own hideout and subsequently skipped paying the fair. So Damian spent the rest of the taxi ride home alone, sifting through the book he'd been given.

While the notes were hastily written and full of spelling and grammatical errors, it contained some priceless information information, not only on the gangs but everything going on in the cities underworld. He even got information on both Anarky and Red-X.

Honouring Grayson's wishes, he'd ripped the info pertaining to Red-X out of the book and pocketed it for later,  He first guessed he wanted to kept it secret, because he didn't want worry Starfire and the other Titans, but the more he read Grayson's notes and reports on his encounters with him, it seemed like he had more of a past than he'd let on.

Inside the elevator he could hear shouting and cheering echoing through the tower, once the doors opened he raced down the hall, following the screaming and drew his dagger, hoping his teammates were still alive Instead of the intruders he'd expected, Damian found the rest of the Titans watching a horror film, the screams and cheers he'd heard where coming were from Garfield who was shaking in fear, and Donna and Jaime who were making fun of all the fake gore and bad acting. Respectively.

Snatching the remote off the coffee table and flicking on the lights, Damian was met with annoyed faces and grumbling from all except Dick, Kori and Raven.

"Welcome back Damian, how was your night?" - Kori asked in her usual cheery manner.

Garfield snickered. - "Yeah, did you and your 'Friend' have a good night?" - He joked, acting a if he wasn't just weeping in fear at a B-Rate horror film, just moments ago.

Instead of responding with a snide insult like he usual did, when he was made fun of, Damian just tossed his notes to Kori and Dick, and took a seat on the edge of the sofa, Raven and the pair were sitting on, he kept his eyes on the two looking at the notebook and ignored the worried aura he could feel Raven projecting.

Kori closed the notebook. - "This is big."

"Bigger than big!" - Dick added, leaping off the sofa. - "Titans, suit up. We have work to do."

Thank you for reading Ch.12 0f 'Counterparts', hope you comment, like, vote, follow me and read Ch.13 - MM