Father and Son

"I yearned for nothing more than to see my son again, yet you heartless bastards are once again tearing him away from me. Why do you insist on being so cruel as to separate a father from his son?" The scientist's voice reverberated angrily across the interrogation table.

The figure on the other side of the table remained stoic and unfazed, their expression hidden behind a mask.

"Don't dismiss a father's anguish, Batman. You cannot ignore my suffering forever. The day will come when my son returns to my side once again. I know I'm a good father, and you will never replace me in my son's heart," the doctor shouted, his words filled with resentment.

Batman's gravelly voice responded calmly, "Is that what you believe, Doctor? Do you truly think you're a good father?"

The doctor scoffed, "Of course I'm a good father! I did everything to ensure that my child thrived, even at the risk of my freedom and safety."

"Then I suppose you won't mind if I clarify a few things before we proceed, Doctor?"

"If you insist," the annoyed voice of the doctor reluctantly responded.

"Your son is your only living relative, as your wife passed away during childbirth, correct?"

"Correct."

"When your son was about six years old, he started displaying peculiar behaviors and engaging in strange actions, such as..." Batman began.

"Finishing my sentences," the doctor interjected.

"Due to these strange behaviors, you conducted a DNA test on your son and discovered that he was a meta-human with psychic abilities, such as mind reading and minor telekinesis. You were thrilled by this revelation and proceeded to train and condition him into becoming your bodyguard or muscle, as you put it," Batman continued.

"I NEVER conditioned or forced my son into becoming my 'muscle.' Besides, you're one to talk, working with a teenage sidekick," the doctor retorted, his frustration evident.

Ignoring his outburst, Batman pressed on, "After training him for four years, you entered into a mutually beneficial relationship with the leader of Bialya, a woman suspected of having ties to unsavory individuals. However, for some reason, the deal fell apart. In the ensuing battle, your son's mind was destroyed by a more powerful psychic aligned with Queen Bee. And then, you used his body as a shield to escape the conflict."

Batman paused, his gaze fixed on the doctor sitting across the table. The dark-skinned man's forehead creased, and fear and panic briefly flickered across his face as the weight of Batman's words sank in. His expression twisted and contorted, revealing the jumble of thoughts racing through his mind. Then, his face fell, and it seemed as if his mind rebooted, returning to the arrogant and relaxed demeanor he had maintained throughout the interview.

"My son sacrificed himself for me, as any good son would do for his father," the doctor asserted.

Batman's icy composure remained unaltered, but inside, he felt a growing disgust for the scientist across from him.

"After your son's ordeal, you vanished for nearly six years. The League lost all trace of you, and your son's body was discovered in a morgue in Coast City. Though unconfirmed, we suspect that you managed to clone your son and enhance his meta abilities to a point where his memories couldn't be implanted into the clone's mind. The clone perceived the memory implantation as an attack, leading to the release of excessive psionic energy that caught the League's attention, eventually leading us to the small island where you conducted your experiments.

Now, I have one question: why has the cloned body of your son developed its own identity, recognizing me at the scene of the incident especially when the computer on scene showed on error in the mnemonic integration?"

The doctor looked down, grimacing at the metallic table. "I don't know what you've done to my son, but there's no logical explanation for him to possess any form of completed consciousness. However, it might be due to..." the doctor halted himself, withholding his theory.

Batman's eyes narrowed at the scientist. "If you have any inkling of what's happening, it would be wise to share it before I uncover the truth myself," the Dark Knight threatened.

Michael simply smiled and remarked, "The world's greatest detective should be capable of figuring it out, right?"

Batman's frown deepened as he exited the interrogation room, instructing the guard, "Take him back to his cell," before leaving the prison with a heavy burden weighing on his mind.