Element of Surprise
Part 10
Bruce came down to the cave carrying a plate of food. He wasn't surprised about Tim missing a meal. He was still recovering from his ordeal. Dick, that was a bit of a surprise. He didn't expect him to be asleep this long. Jason, he usually doesn't miss a meal. "You missed Dinner. I had Alfred fix you up a plate. What's got you all puzzled?"
"Dad, get over here." Jason used his free hand to wave Bruce over while looking into the microscope.
"What are you looking at?"
"Our blood samples. Alright, look at this slide." Jason swapped out Jaxon's slide and put in Bruce's. "This one is yours. As you can see there is no difference in it, meaning you're not a meta." Jason moved to let Bruce look.
Bruce looked into the microscope. "Yup. I know that blood anywhere," he joked.
"Ha-ha," Jason said and swapped the slide with a sample he was given during class. "Now, look at this one
"Hmmm . . . There seems to be some extra element . . . Similar to the electrum that was in Dick's blood, but it's naturally occurring."
"The meta element, that's what it's been named." Jason swapped out the slide again. "This is my daughter's."
"That element isn't in her blood."
"That means she isn't a meta. All metas have that element in their blood."
"Okay. What about Samantha and her two sons? I'm positive Tim isn't a meta."
"Samantha and Caleb carry the gene. Tim and Caine do not have that element. Though Samantha's is tweaked just a bit, I guess since she's Atlantean."
"Okay . . . Who does that leave?"
"I thought it would only be Samantha and Caleb, but I was wrong. Way fucking, wrong." Jason put in Jax's slide without mentioning who's it is.
Bruce was not prepared for what he saw. "What on earth? There's the meta element. Who's blood is this? Jaxon? Wait if this is Jaxon the only way he could have gotten a meta gene is from . . . " Bruce looked at Jason.
"Whoa, no dad. I don't have a meta gene. What if Sasha does?"
"Let me see your blood." Bruce had a sample of Jason's blood from long ago, and it registered as human. That was early on when metas were just showing up.
"I didn't take any blood from myself yet." Jason set up a syringe and needle and drew blood from himself. He capped the vial and then handed it to dad so he could toss the dirty needle away.
Bruce made up a slide and placed it under the microscope. He looked at Jason's blood. Bruce eyes narrowed. Something was different. He went over to the computer and pulled up the old file and compared them. 'Yes, something is different.' It was as if Jason had somehow was becoming a meta. 'Could it have been due to the Lazarus Pit? Could it had changed his blood somehow?'
"Dad?" Jason couldn't help noticing that Bruce was going into Batman-mode. Jason could see the gears in his head start to move faster. Jason also could tell that Bruce was thinking hard about something.
"Take a look Jason," Bruce said. "I think you will be surprised."
Jason looked into the microscope. What he saw shocked him. 'I have the meta element, but how?'
"I believe from the Lazarus Pit. It changed your blood somehow. You had some unique signatures in your blood before, but they weren't meta elements. The Lazarus Pit completed that process. You may have gotten those elements from an ancestor since they are a recessive trait."
Jason looked down at his hands and nodded. It was a bit much to take in.
"Jason, can you tell me about anything unusual that might have happened recently?"
"To me? Or just in general?"
Bruce continued to study the sample. "To you."
Jason sat back and thought for a moment. "Nothing happened recently I remember going against the leader of the Red Hood gang when Talia was training me. Something weird did happened. The guy died soon after that. It's weird because they said he was immortal . . . I don't know . . ."
"Anything more recent?" Bruce asked. "I remembered you mentioned to someone about seeing Ducra and fighting Ra's."
"Uhm, he said something along the lines that someone who was extraordinary would be able to turn Ra's mortal. Someone who could wield the swords he had."
"Interesting . . . Though I don't think you have to worry about that. You may want to ask Damian about Ra's."
"Okay." Jason went back to his clip board and finished marking it, changing Jax's blood information from normal that he had anticipated to meta. "Now I'm curious, I wonder what Jax's power is."
"We'll have to explore what it is both you and Jax can do."
Jason nodded and started to clean up, disposing of the used slides and putting the microscope back in its original place. He also cleaned the vials. His stomach growled once he was done. "I should get dinner."
"That's what this is," Bruce handed Jason the covered plate.
Jason took the plate from dad and opened it up. "Mmmm, baked ziti." Jason picked up the fork and started to eat. It was one of his favorites that Alfred makes.
"Are you up for patrol?"
"As long as I'm back at a decent hour," Jason said. "I have a class that starts at nine thirty."
"Midnight decent enough?" Bruce questioned. "Or should we make it 11:00."
"Midnight sounds good."
"After you eat, suit up."
Jason nodded and continued to eat. After he was done, Jason headed over and grabbed his uniform and went to change.
Bruce changed, but not into his bat suit. He went over to the make-up table and placed some putty around his nose and added a scar. He was creating a new character for now. Matches wouldn't be required this time. He added brown contacts and a mustache.
"Don't feel like being Batman for tonight?" Jason joked.
"I was going to see if I could learn anything new on who hired Flamingo. Obviously, it wasn't Cypher. He had his own agenda. You might be able to flush out any rats, but I might be able to learn about the big cheese."
Jason snickered to himself when Bruce said, 'big cheese'. He put on his uniform, placed a mask over his face. He had his helmet under his arm. "Fine with me, where do you want to check first?"
"Crime Alley . . . And the surrounding area."
Red Hood nodded. "So, who are you this week?"
"Lester Krutz, a construction worker." Bruce went to the car area and chose one. "We'll meet up later. You might even treat me like an informant to give it legitimacy. I'm going to see if I can infiltrate."
"Good idea," Red Hood stated. Jason smirked under his helmet. He was looking forward to meeting up with "Lester Krutz," to find out what he knew about Flamingo. In the meantime. Red Hood would look for other snitches to see what they knew either on Flamingo or Cypher.
Continues with Part 11