Prisoner Zero(5)

Timothy Drake had a pair of striking blue eyes. If you got close enough and looked long enough, you'd notice that the blue spanned almost every shade from sky blue to navy, evoking thoughts of the sky, the universe, and the ocean.

"Iris authentication passed. Welcome, Mr. Drake," announced the electronic female voice in the sealed chamber, accompanied by faint mechanical noises as the door to the medical laboratory housing Nora's cryo chamber slowly opened.

Baia was pulled along and wasted no time slipping inside as soon as the door opened. It took the Zero Prisoner about half a minute to bite the metal rod in two while struggling with Tim. By the time it realized what was happening, there was a thick metal door separating it from Tim and Baia.

It pressed against the bulletproof glass window on the door, its slightly cloudy yellow eyes glaring fiercely at the two, its gaze shifting back and forth between Baia and Tim.

Baia instinctively moved backward.

Tim and the creature locked eyes for half a second before Tim pressed a button on the door, activating the security mode and setting the level to maximum.

The floor, electrified by high voltage lines, posed a considerable threat to the Zero Prisoner swimming in the air. Pale blue arcs of electricity rose from the ground like snakes, seizing the fugitive from another universe. It slammed against the door, emitting a rather gruesome howl, its semi-transparent pale blue skin visibly turning charred.

Baia closed her eyes: "I had a reason not to come to Gotham General."

"Right... electric grilled eel," the system mused.

"What? Are you seriously thinking about food at a time like this? Do you even have a mouth?" Baia retorted.

"What else would I use to blabber with if I didn't have a mouth?"

The system seemed to be deflecting.

After a while, Baia peeked out from behind Tim, observing through the bulletproof glass that the Zero Prisoner was lying motionless on the ground. "Is... is it over? It looks like it's dying."

Tim was curious whether Baia was extending her sympathy to unfriendly non-human entities or keeping it around because it might still be useful. To him, the word "sparrow" was still an unsolved mystery, and he wanted to bring this thing back to the Batcave for further interrogation.

Actually, Baia did feel that the scene was somewhat brutal, but the main reason she didn't intervene was that the mission hadn't been completed yet. She probably had to get this thing back inside the walls alive.

"I'll go check the situation. Be careful," Tim warned. "Its vitality is strong; perhaps it's just playing dead."

Tim opened the door, and the Zero Prisoner remained lying still on the ground. He tensed his body, not relaxing his guard.

There was a burnt smell in the air.

As Tim approached the creature, Baia noticed something was off. It adjusted its position slightly.

"Tim," Baia exclaimed anxiously, "get out of the way!"

Instinctively, Tim dodged, narrowly avoiding the Zero Prisoner, which leaped from the ground like an arrow towards Baia.

At that moment, Tim was the one most scared.

In his mind flashed a series of scenarios of what might happen when Bruce came home, including a tragedy that started with "Sorry Bruce, Baia got eaten by a monster while we were on an unexpected adventure" and ended with a series of physical conflicts and family ruptures. Compared to that, he would rather be the one bitten, and his body moved subconsciously, lunging towards Baia.

Having gone through a series of events, Baia was no longer as helpless as when she first arrived in Gotham, relying solely on Selina to pull her through for survival. When the sharp teeth were about to touch her skin, she immediately dodged to the side, sending out the bat dart in the process.

This part was more of an anticipated move.

After narrowly avoiding the attack, a strong force slammed into her side. Baia hadn't even reacted before Tim pushed her down to the ground, using his relatively narrow shoulders to shield her from harm.

The two stared at each other.

"Where's the bat dart?" Tim asked.

Baia pointed behind him. "Stuffed it in its mouth."

Half a second later, a fire ignited under the semi-transparent skin of the Zero Prisoner, but the explosion wasn't dazzling, nor did it result in the gory scene of organs flying everywhere. The creature's body indeed had astonishing durability.

However, this time it finally fell completely.

Ding!

The system started buzzing incessantly.

Baia immediately asked, "Can you hold it in after the upgrade?"

The system remained silent for a while, then squeezed out a word, "...yes!"

Baia replied, "Then wait for me to have time to check the messages. Be patient."

Without even looking, Baia knew the mission was completed, but she didn't understand why there were so many alerts. Blinking belatedly, she noticed that Tim, who was now very close to her, didn't look too good.

Was he injured? Baia touched his forehead, but his life indicator still showed one hundred percent.

Tim felt his temples throbbing.

"You... you stuck your hand in its mouth, didn't you?" he asked, struggling to control his voice.

It sounded exactly like Batman questioning Robin every time.

So that was the issue. Baia tilted her head back, feeling somewhat proud. "Did I pick the perfect moment?" she asked innocently.

She was fishing for compliments again, completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation.

Taking a deep breath, Tim hesitated for a moment before deciding not to dampen her enthusiasm immediately after the fight. Somehow, he was starting to feel the burden of handling three people like Bruce did.

Just a little bit more and he would have to figure out how to explain to Bruce that he took the little witch out and came back with her hand bitten off.

After standing up, Tim pulled Baia up from the ground as well. The young girl brushed off the dust from her skirt, then went to inspect the Zero Prisoner's condition.

Ais, who knew his place very well, didn't rush forward to cause trouble for his master and stayed obediently on the sidelines until the creature was subdued.

Tim nudged the monster on the ground with his toe. "Still alive. Its resilience is truly astonishing."

Normally, he wasn't this harsh, but this Zero Prisoner had provoked him too many times.

Just as he was about to call Gordon, Baia exchanged the handbag that supposedly could hold "some animals" from the system.

"So, you mean..." Tim pondered, "...I should stuff this 19-foot-long shape-shifter into a handbag that appeared out of thin air, measuring 20×40×50cm?"

He almost forgot how good Baia was at "making things appear out of thin air." Baia nodded. "Exactly."

"I guess you've noticed that even just one of its tails would be too big for this bag," Tim said with some frustration.

"Let's give it a try," Baia said, putting on a brave face. "It should work out fine. If not, then we'll call the GCPD."

Tim's suit jacket was already torn, so he took it off and rolled up the sleeves of his blood-stained shirt. With folded arms, he looked at the massive creature on the ground and the delicate little bag for a moment. "Alright."

He had to admit that the bag did have some ability.

It must be some kind of magical item.

"We might need to hurry back," Baia said. "This bag can only exist for an hour."

Tim calculated the time in his mind. They still had time.

"Since we're here, you can check on Nora's condition first. We still have about 20 minutes to spare."

In that case, Baia didn't insist further. After all, Tim, as the Red Robin, would definitely have a better grasp of the situation than she did.

The Ice Maiden still slept in eternal beauty amidst the frost and snow.

Aside from the information provided by the system, Tim narrated the rest to her.

Nora had a very rare type of blood cancer. When it came to blood cancer, the most common type was leukemia, but Nora's case was even more unique. Furthermore, her blood type was one in a million. Trying to restore her abnormal hematopoietic function through a bone marrow transplant was basically impossible. Even if they searched the entire world, it was almost impossible to find a matching bone marrow for her.

It was difficult even to give her a blood transfusion.

Her illness had progressed to an advanced stage. When her condition was initially discovered, she and her family attempted various medical treatments, but none could rid her body of the disease. Now, Nora's hematopoietic function was completely disrupted, with the few remaining functional hematopoietic stem cells extremely scarce.

"Hmm... Have you considered autologous transplantation?" Tim replied, "It's basically not possible. Cultivating healthy cells ex vivo also takes time, which she simply doesn't have. And it's hard to say if she even has enough normal hematopoietic cells left."

"I think I can address this part," Baia said, "Let's discuss with Professor Green another day."

Without lingering much longer, Baia, Tim, and Ais left the hospital through a side door.

Because of a colleague's tip-off, Nurse Jenny deliberately passed by and noticed that Timothy's coat mysteriously disappeared. His usually well-groomed hairstyle was now slightly disheveled, with his longer bangs softly falling over his eyes.

She was utterly shocked.

Wasn't he supposed to visit Nora? How did it turn out like this?

Sitting in the car on the way back to the manor, with the box containing the Zero Prisoner placed on her lap, Baia closed her eyes.

"System, you can speak now."