I've been swamped with work so I wasn't able to put out the longer chapter I originally had planned.
This seems to be doing quite good as I've now hit 1.5k views, thanks everyone :3
Just a few more chapters until it really starts to ramp up.
"Prepare the medbay!" Batman yells over the radio
The Batmobile races down the neon-lit streets of Gotham, weaving in and out of traffic with ease as it heads toward Wayne Manor. Its powerful engine roars through the night, leaving a trail of smoke and dust behind. As it approaches the entrance to the Batcave, the Batmobile's headlights illuminate the rocky walls, casting eerie shadows across the cave's entrance. With a sudden burst of speed, the Batmobile accelerates towards the entrance, its engines revving as it hurtles towards the hidden door. The Batcave's security system recognizes the Batmobile's approach and the massive steel doors slowly begin to open, revealing a dark sprawling tunnel. The Batmobile roars into the Batcave, its tires screeching against the rough cave floor as it comes to a sudden stop. Dotted around the cave is high-tech equipment, including computers, weapons, and vehicles. Batman steps out of the vehicle and immediately turns to the rear vehicle's bay. As he does so, Alfred appears from another room, carrying a tray of sterilized equipment.
"Welcome home, Master Bruce, what seems to be the matter this time?" Alfred says, watching as Bruce presses a series of buttons at the rear of the Batmobile. He watches as a stretcher is mechanically released from the Batmobile, where Midoriya lies unconscious, his torso and face are bloodied and bruised. Bruce grabs a hold of the cart and starts to navigate the catwalks over to the Medbay.
"Master Bruce, does this mean you have given it a second thought?" Alfred breaks the silence.
"He's injured, and he's got the Penguin's crew out for him, this was the only safe place I could get him to in time. Nothing else" Bruce shakes his head at Alfred's suggestion.
"We don't know his personality yet Alfred, we need to stay focused" Bruce flatly says to Alfred
"But we do know that he fought a warehouse full of mobsters to save that little girl with the white hair" Alfred replies back, his tone shifting more assertive.
They lay him down on the operating table, and Alfred quickly gets to work on preparing the medical equipment. The two cut away at his upper jumpsuit and remove his gauntlets. Bruce grabs a gadget from the plethora along the wall and begins to scan Midoriya's upper body.
"Five broken ribs, concussion, and acute organ damage" Bruce says as he reads off the scanner.
"Get me tray 3, tools 3, 6, and 7. Nothing I haven't patched you up from. The boy is already starting to look like you at his young age" Alfred mentions to Bruce as he looks over the scarred tissue on his arm.
Alfred begins to work on Midoriya's wounds, carefully cutting them to access the injured areas. Bruce hands him various instruments, and together they work in silence, focused solely on saving the young guy's life.
Midoriya's gauntlet starts to get in the way, Bruce grabs it and starts to move it when a familiar feeling comes over him. Seeing Izuku's mangled body, Bruce's mind flashes back to his final goodbye to Jason. Bruce can still feel the heat from the roaring fires that surrounded him in the burning rubble. The sound of his own screams as he held Jason's lifeless body in his arms, and the bitter tears that he shed in the aftermath still feel fresh. Bruce feels the weight of an unending regret deep in his chest.
"Bruce! Bruce!" Alfred calls to Bruce's bringing his attention back to the moment.
"Sir, it may be best for me to handle the rest of the operation on my own," Alfred says as a wave of sadness sweeps over his usually distinguished tone.
"Bruce, I understand the pain but you should consider it from Jason's perspective. He may have been rough around the edges, but he always checked in on you when you were so focused on the mission that you forgot yourself" Alfred pleads to Bruce, all the while operating on Midoriya. "He wanted to see the best for you as you did for him. It'd break his heart to know you've spent the year since his death in near-complete solitude. You've only worked with the League two times and spoken to Grayson only once since then! While there are many who need Batman, there are still some who need Bruce" Alfred's eyes and nose are red but manages to keep his composure.
Bruce stays quiet at first as he begins to walk out of the room. He passes alongside a photo of Bruce, Grayson, and Jason on the wall. Flipping it over he rereads the same line he has every month for the last twelve months.
Dont Forget To Take A Break Sometime Bruce. We Both know you need it.
G & T
He places the photo back on the wall then reaches to take off his cowl and places it atop it's mantle. Bruce looks down at the gauntlet, it's ripped and tattered. The mechanisms underneath are poking and cutting through the worn layer of fabric. He looks back over his shoulder to where Alfred is operating then to the armory where a gallery of suits stands lifeless, then finally back at the gauntlet. After a deep breath, Bruce walks back to the Medbay.
"He had very little when it comes to armor. I'm not taking him in, but I'm not going to send him back out there to die" Bruce says to Alfred, still dejected. Bruce approaches Izuku's operating table and picks up all the salvageable gear he had left lying around. The two give each other a nod before Bruce walks out of the room yet again.
Using spare materials like of metal and fabric, he silently crafts a suit that will protect Izuku's vital points. He was able to reverse engineer that both Izuku's boots and gloves had energy-dampening properties. Under the theory that he's an agile fighter, he works to replicate the body of Nightwing's armored suit. Batman's tools clang against the metal and the sound of fabric being sewn fills the air.
The minutes turn to hours as he tinkers away, all the while countless memories of his journeys with both of his apprentices flood through his mind one after another.
After tireless hours, the surgery is complete. Midoriya is stabilized, his wounds carefully stitched and bandaged. Alfred exhales a sigh of relief, knowing that the young hero will recover in time. Only mere scraps of the upper costume were left as all else had to be cut away or destroyed to complete the surgery. The sound of a heartbeat monitor starts to echo out from the medbay.
"We will have to look after him for at least a few days" Alfred reminds Bruce.
"Good. More days that Penguin's crew will be on a wild-goose chase" Bruce responds from a far.
Hours pass as the sun climbs into the sky above letting the faintest amount of light peer through the cascading waterfall at the end of the Batcave
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Midoriya slowly opens his eyes to rugged stone walls and ceiling. He feels groggy and disoriented as the memory of how he got there slowly creeps back into his mind. His body feels heavy, restrained by medical equipment, causing the heartbeat monitor to speed up. He can hear punk music in the distance overpower the sounds of flowing water. Looking down he sees his chest is bandaged and swollen with tubes and wires connecting to machines monitoring his vital signs. As Izuku turns his neck to get a better read on all the screens reading his vitals he sees a man in the corner cleaning equipment by hand.
He seems old but with an impeccable posture. He's dressed in a lavish suit with gray hair atop his head. Looking over the man see's the boy moving around in an anxious panic.
"Master, it seems that the boy has woken up from his injuries" the older man calls out in a sophisticated tone, turning from his activities over to where Izuku lays in bed. He takes a few steps forward then sits on a rolling stool wheeling closer to Izuku, revealing the old man's finely trimmed mustache and round glasses.
The man clears his threat before he speaks but is cut off by Izuku. "Uhh... hey, who are you? What did you do to me?" Izuku asks through sputtered words.
"You can call me Alfred sir, and I patched you up to the best of my abilities. Master brought you in with quite the list of injuries. This... line of work will always need someone like me it seems" he follows up.
"Thank you, but I need to ask, where are we? I need to get back to U.A!" Izuku replies, the anxious undertone still faintly present.
Alfred's face is overtaken by a look of empathy before he softly warns Izuku "I'm afraid that it would be best to wait for now. These wounds will not heal if you do not give yourself time to rest. It would be wildly reckless to try and travel on your own in your current state, especially with such a large bounty on your head"
"A bounty? By who? I need to make sure my friends are still alright!" Izuku remarks.
"For that, you should talk to him" Alfred responds making a small gesture to the other side of Izuku's operating table. Izuku jumps in surprise when he is greeted by a tall, muscular, and imposing figure just a few feet beside him. He's dawned in a black costume, cape, cowl, and a bat emblem on his chest. The heart rate monitor in the corner skyrockets then slowly creeps back down to normal after his quiet entrance spooks Izuku. The grimace on his face reminds him of Aizawa's piercing eyes and unwavering expression but infinitely scarier.
"I... I... Who are you? How'd you find me? Are you a pro hero?" Izuku scrambles through the back of his mind to find any memory of a hero that even remotely resembles the person before him
"I'm Batman, I overheard the commotion at the docks and cleaned up the outpost before taking you here. You could of got yourself killed in there, Midoriya!" Batman says as he steps closer to the operating table.
Batman? I've never heard of a hero by that name before. Izuku thinks to himself. He's intimidated by Batman's imposing presence and demeanor. Hmm, strange, he called them superpowers and not a quirk. That's unique. Midoriya. He jumps back in confusion realizing he just said his name.
"How do you know my name?" Izuku stammered looking at Alfred and then back to Batman.
"You had an ID to a U.A. Hero Academy inside one of your belt pockets with a matching photo"
Oh wait, my stuff ! He panics as he realizes he's just laying here in just the pants from his jumpsuit. "Where's all my stuff?" Izuku asks politely, trying not to get on the bad side of the beast of a man before him.
"I put it all in a bag in the other room for the time being" Batman says back to him. Izuku slowly becomes more comfortable, the tension in his body loosening.
As the conversation goes along Bruce checks off the list in his mind of concerns he raised. "There are two large issues with your current situation. There is no such thing as U.A. in any of our international archives. Additionally, you sure are a hell of a ways away from Japan" Bruce's attempt to comfort the youth has always been poor, especially this instance. No matter the intent the info frightens Izuku.
"What, that's impossible. I was in U.A. in Mustafa until I... The portal, did the portal take me to another world?" Izuku pivots from talking to Batman to questioning himself. He begins to mutter incoherently as he blabbers ideas under his breath at lightning speed.
"Midoriya, is there a Justice League or a Justice Society in your world?" Bruce asks.
Izuku stares in confusion the names cross his mind with zero familiarity.
"I'm sorry sir, I don't believe so" Izuku says as he sits up.
Bruce grunts and scowls at this information. He tilts his head up to the roof. He hides his considerable concern under that cold emotionless mask he's learned to put on over the years. If there is no Justice League in his world, the Watchtower's warpgate network won't be able to take him back home... unless he can communicate with someone who's already there.
The room goes quiet, enough that a pin drop would be deafening.
"Midoriya, you've traveled across the multiverse. "