But something was wrong.
The sounds of bodies dropping were heard.
I came out from behind my cover, gun raised, only to find the room cleared.
I could've sworn there were at least five men left when I got hit.
My eyes fell onto Jason. He thankfully seemed mostly unharmed. He was staring at the ceiling. My eyes followed his, and wouldn't you know it, tucked on top of a support beam was a familiar dark figure.
"You sure took your time"
Batman dropped down, landing between me and Jason.
"What are you doing here, Renegade?" Batman sounded pissed.
"Saving my friend. So if you wouldn't mind-" I tried to walk past him, even though my leg burned as soon as any pressure was put on it, but no such luck, as he grabbed my scarf.
"Hey, get off!"
Batman, of course, did not listen.
"If you really want to help, go watch the door. More men are probably on their way" Batman ordered.
Fine. As long as Jason got out of here safe and sound I'd listen to Batman this once.
I limped over to the door to stand guard, twirling my gun in my hand, despite Batman's disapproving glare. I could not give less shits about Batman's weird anti-gun mentality.
I heard Batman fidget with Jason's restraints. Maybe Batman was more suited for the task anyway. I only really had knives, he probably had some better tool.
The coast was still clear, with no one in sight. Maybe the others hadn't had a chance to call for help before I killed them? No, I couldn't get optimistic, I needed to be realistic. Harvey would surely not leave his hideout this vulnerable.
"Ren!" A smaller form crushed me in a hug.
Ouch. It appeared the adrenaline was starting to wear off.
I returned the hug.
"Hi, Jason"
I glanced over at Batman who looked confused. He probably hadn't expected me to actually be friends with Jason.
"I wanna go home" Jason mumbled into my shirt.
God, he was just a kid. He didn't deserve any of this.
"It's okay, we're here. We're gonna get you out of here" I promised.
"Renegade, you're bleeding," Batman noticed.
"I'm aware, Bats. I did get shot"
Jason released me from the hug, looking horrified.
"You what?"
"Yup. I'm fine, it's not the first time"
That did not help. Jason and Batman appeared to only grow more concerned.
"Okay," Batman sighed, "you're coming to the car and we'll patch you up"
"Then what? You gonna arrest me? Nope, I'll manage" There was no way I was going anywhere near that car again unless it was as Robin.
"This is not up for debate. You need to get that patched up, and it's either this or the hospital. You're not going home with a bullet in your leg" Batman had clearly made up his mind.
"If you try to arrest me you're getting shot" I threatened.
"I'll consider this an exception" Batman grudgingly promised, much to my surprise.
Until we got to the car I should probably try to stop the blood flow somewhat. It wasn't bleeding as much as you'd think, but it still wasn't good.
"Jason, hold this for a second?" I switched on the safety and handed Jason my gun. I then removed my scarf and tied it tightly around my leg. It would do for a bit.
Jason handed me back my gun.
"Okay," I tried taking a step, grimacing at the pain, but I'd manage, "let's leave, shall we?"
"Renegade, there's still no reinforcement in sight, no?" Batman said.
I understood where this was going.
"Which is very strange for someone like Harvey"
Batman nodded.
"It could be a trap"
No sooner had he said that before a beeping sounded throughout the warehouse, accompanied by red blinking dots. And then an explosion and I was engulfed in light.
I hit the ground and everything went black for a second, the air quickly leaving my lungs from the impact.
I blinked, trying to regain my vision, everything was just a blur. It was so warm, burning. My ears were ringing. There was a weight on top of me.
A few moments passed.
I could finally see again.
God, I almost wished I couldn't. I was met with the dark knight trapped beneath a metal beam, arms around Jason and I...
Did he save me?
"Batman?"
There was a crack in his mask, running all the way down the front of it. And from beneath the mask, something was making its way down his face, wait, was that blood?
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck.
I had to get him out of there. I managed to free myself and tried to lift the beam. It moved ever so slightly, but it was too heavy for me alone.
I carefully let go of the beam and knelt beside Jason.
"You okay? I need your help to save Batman"
Jason coughed, probably from all the smoke, and slowly opened his eyes.
"...Robin?"
Oh.
Oh.
That was not...how the fu- unless...
My hand flew up to my face, fingers feeling for my mask, but feeling skin. The mask was torn, only barely covering one of my eyes.
Jason's eyes grew wide.
"Robin?"
Oh God, this was not how I wanted him to find out.
"You...you lied to me!" Jason tried to scramble back, but struggled, as Batman still held a protective arm around him.
"I know," I started, carefully moving Batman as little as necessary, freeing Jason, "and I'm sorry. I want to talk about it, but right now Batman is injured and needs our help, okay"
Now would be the absolute worst time to get angry with each other, and as much as I wanted to defend myself, I needed to help Batman so we all could get out of here.
Jason glared, jaw clenched, but he looked over the the unconscious dark knight, and decided that was indeed our priority.
"A knife is not gonna make up for this one" he muttered, pushing past me, walking up to the beam.
'So two knives?' I kept my joke to myself. This was not the right time.
With Jason's help, the beam was lifted from Batman and dropped onto the floor next to him.
I held my hand in front of Batman's face until I felt a few clear breaths.
"He's breathing," I told Jason, "Let's get him outside"
We attempted to carry Batman, but he was too heavy, so we resorted to dragging him. At least his armor protected him from getting absolutely scratched by the rough ground.
My leg protested with every step, but I just had to deal with it. There was no other option.
We laid him down a good bit from the warehouse, far enough away that the heat and smoke were nothing more than a mild annoyance.
I was on high alert. I was constantly scanning our surroundings, listening for any suspicious noise. It was strange that reenforcement had still not arrived. I could only assume Harvey had been sure we would perish in the explosion.
Speaking of Harvey, his men were still in the building. He really didn't care at all, huh. They were all going to die. I wondered if the ones Batman had just knocked out would even wake up before they succumbed. If they did we'd probably be able to tell by their screams.
Okay, now Batman. His chest was still steadily rising, but he showed no sign of waking up. He was still bleeding from his head and the beam had injured his leg, as it was bleeding as well, and maybe broken. His ribs could've been hurt as well but I was no doctor.
I had to stop the bleeding first of all. I tore a piece from Batman's cape and used it to dress the wound on his leg. His head, however, was a bit of a problem. I would not be able to do anything with the mask in the way.
I'd have to do it, huh? This should've felt like my greatest achievement, finding out what no one else had. Demasking the dark knight, but I just felt ill.
I took a deep breath.
"Dude, I am so sorry for this"
God this felt so wrong.
I carefully slipped the mask off Batman's head, revealing more blood, clotting, sticking to his face.
The mask dropped to the ground.
It took me a few seconds to even process that I was looking at Batman's face. He looked young, not super young, but younger than dad. I then realized I recognized this man.
"Bruce Wayne!" Jason blurted out.
He was right. Gotham's favourite billionaire was laying unconscious on the ground in a bat costume.
It made perfect sense actually. Batman's suit was extremely advanced, as was the rest of his tech. Surely it was stupidly expensive. I should've realized it had to be someone rich, but Bruce Wayne? The guy was a total nerd.
Now it also made sense that he wasn't at his own party. I remembered dad had asked Selena to cause some trouble, and Batman had indeed shown up there.
"Can you stop the bleeding?" Jason asked.
I nodded. The wound wasn't as bad as it looked. The head always bled a lot, even if the wound itself was small.
It looked like the thing that broke his mask was also the cause of the wound, probably a piece falling from the ceiling when the explosion went off.
The angle was a bit awkward, but I wrapped the wound with another piece from Batman's cape, using a rolled-up piece to apply pressure, as that was what would actually stop the bleeding.
I'd done a pretty good job. It wasn't perfect, but none of us would die in the next hour or so at least.
"Jason, keep watch. I'll try to figure out how to get Batman's car over here. I think he can summon it somehow."
I'd seen him do it. It had something to do with his arm, more precisely, the small panel with a bunch of buttons.
I had no idea what any of the buttons did, so instead of pressing them like some fucking idiot, I connected my holobracelet and started picking apart the software. Lines of code started appearing on my screen, and I scanned each line for what I needed.
I eventually found it. The code that made the batmobile start, disengage its protection while parked and drive to the location of a tracker. I assumed the tracker was somewhere on Batman's person, which would get the car here.
I ran the command.
Barely a minute later the Batmobile sped into view, coming to a stop a few feet away.
"Let's get him inside," I said.
It was extremely difficult, but we did eventually get Batman into the front seat. The backseat would've been easier, but if he did wake up it'd be convenient to have him in the front seat where all of the car's buttons, screens, and cool tech were, cause I did not know how anything worked.
I sat in the passenger seat. While I technically knew how to drive, I'd never really tried, and I was not going to take the risk. Besides, the Batmobile literally had an autopilot.
Some things were labeled in the car, and the screens were fairly simple to read. One of the buttons had a phone symbol. Maybe we could call for assistance. Batman had talked to some Alfred guy back when he tried to arrest me, he could probably help.
There was a call history, and the person most frequently called was just 'A'. That was probably the guy.
I pressed the name and a hand scanner came up on the screen. I placed Batman's hand on the screen, and it accepted. The call started.
It didn't take long before someone answered.
"Did it go well?"
It was the same voice I'd heard Batman speaking to, good.
"No, it went quite horribly. In fact, Batman is literally unconscious and injured, and and I'm low-key freaking out a bit cause it's been like 10 minutes and he's still not woken up and I don't know what the fuck to do"
"Who am I speaking to?" the voice was now stern, worried.
"Okay, so remember when Batman tried to arrest the Joker's kid and lock him up in the Batcave but he kind of escaped? Well, that was me, and I was just now saving Jason from Harvey and Batman showed up and then some explosives went off, and Jason and I got Batman to the car and yeah" I quickly explained.
The voice, or well, Alfred, as I was pretty sure his name was, sighed.
"I'm not even going to question how this happened, but I'm assuming you don't know how to drive the car"
"No, not really"
"Alright. I will turn on autopilot and bring you to the cave. The windows will darken, so don't even think about trying to figure out where it is" Alfred said.
The engine turned on, and just like he said, the windows turned black, and I couldn't see through them at all.
As the car started driving, I destroyed Batman's cape further to make a sort of headband to cover my face where the mask had ripped. I did not need any more people finding out my identity.