Prisoner Zero (1)

No matter if Bruce's affection for Baia is locked at 80% or not, Baia's affection for Bruce has surged upward. It's been a long time since she felt this... fatherly feeling. Baia just couldn't understand: How could it be? Dick's affection was filled without much effort, why would her affection for her old father be locked?

System: Look carefully at the task description! Achieving [Teammate] level, how could your old father feel at ease letting you be a teammate and letting you roam outside!

Baia: ...You're right.

Thinking about how easily Selina threw herself onto the rooftop, it really was reassuring. Although Bruce didn't say it explicitly today, such as what happened to the second Robin — although everyone knew it ended unpleasantly — Baia could almost smell the sadness in the air, which meant he would never allow such a thing to happen again.

No. Baia sat up, still unable to sleep.

Did you say before that I can check the specific information of the task target? It suddenly dawned on her.

System: Yes, indeed. If you want to do the task [Crack on the Wall], there are also task items you can receive.

The crack on the wall was too conspicuous for Baia to ignore and sleep peacefully. She always heard voices from inside, a stern, rough voice declaring something. It frightened Baia, and she wanted to escape far away rather than deal with the task. The pitch-black crack seemed to emit a faint golden light from time to time.

Baia gently touched the crack on the wall, feeling more ordinary than it looked.

[Crack on the Wall]

A crack on the surface of the universe, the junction of two universes.

A crack on the surface of the universe...

Is there another world behind the wall?

Baia pressed her ear against the wall, and besides her own heartbeat, the majestic voice grew louder.

"Prisoner Zero has... escaped!"

A huge blue eye suddenly appeared on the other side of the crack, scanning outside wildly.

Baia let out a short scream.

The surreal scene caused her excessive fear. Although the eye disappeared afterwards, leaving only an empty crack, her heart was about to burst from her chest. When she gasped violently and came to her senses, she found herself sitting on the floor.

This place is not safe, very, very unsafe.

Bruce was so distracted by something that he immediately left Gotham in the Batmobile after calming Baia down. Handing over his city to Nightwing, one could say Bruce Wayne was really a neglectful stepfather. Now, Dick was still up all night reviewing the progress of the cases that Batman and Red Robin were handling. Tim came up from the Batcave wearing his uniform. Since there were no secrets left for Baia in this household, it didn't matter. Although Tim acted indifferent in front of Bruce and Dick, he still wanted to see the results of Bruce's conversation. If Baia had already gone to bed, then he should prepare to rest too.

From Tim's point of view, it was unrealistic to keep Baia in the dark about their life in Wayne Manor for long. But to discover their other identities so quickly was quite surprising. Unexpectedly, when he turned the corner, he saw Baia sitting on the carpet with Ace in her arms. Alfred was already resting, having gone to bed, and naturally hadn't noticed Baia's unusual behavior. Ace was attracted by the strange noise from Baia's side.

The loyal and beautiful German Shepherd licked Baia's face affectionately, wagging its tail, guarding her in a protective posture. It woke up to find the new little mistress squatting at the bedroom door. Although it didn't know what was happening — although it did detect a slightly unusual smell — it still faithfully accompanied her. A small bundle curled up behind Ace looked particularly pitiful.

"What's going on?" Tim frowned.

His first reaction was, did Bruce make her cry? Although Bruce wasn't good at expressing emotions, it shouldn't have been like this. Not to mention, if Bruce really couldn't handle Baia, he should have asked Dick and Alfred for help immediately, instead of leaving the little girl and driving away overnight.

It must be something else.

Ace noticed Tim's arrival and stood up, giving a gentle bark towards him.

"Tim!" Baia's eyes widened with a fear he had never seen before.

She had been captured by Mr. Freeze, covered in frostbite and running a high fever when she was brought to Wayne Manor, looking as bedraggled as a wet puppy caught in a downpour, but she hadn't been this frightened.

"I wanted to find Bruce, but Bruce isn't here," Baia's lips were pale, "and neither are you and Dick."

Tim reached out and helped her up from the floor. "Don't be afraid, I'm here. What happened?"

"There's something in my room," Baia said, "there's a crack on the wall, and there's a voice talking to me from inside, and an eye."

Tim couldn't help feeling a shiver run down his spine at this horror story-like description. It was no wonder Baia didn't dare to sleep in her own room. But his intuition and logic told him that such a thing was highly unlikely. The security system at Wayne Manor was top-notch, comparable to that of the White House.

An eye in the wall? How could that be possible?

But Baia wasn't the type to be easily frightened, on the contrary, they all knew she was quite calm in front of strangers.

Perhaps she was just having a nightmare.

Or perhaps they were facing an enemy from the girl's bedroom.

"Let's go take a look together," Tim said, not wearing gloves. He held Baia's hand, trying to comfort her. "Maybe it's just a crack on the wall."

Tim didn't believe Baia's story from the bottom of his heart, but that didn't stop him from being on high alert.

One hand holding Baia's, the other hand already had a Batarang pressed against his palm.

The warmth of his hand reassured Baia a little, and she immediately grasped Tim's hand tightly as if grasping a lifeline.

Opening the door, their big German Shepherd, Ace, rushed in first, sniffing around on the carpet with his tail lowered.

Tim knew Ace's reaction was unusual. As a dog of the Wayne family, he had undergone quite rigorous training. His movements undoubtedly meant that there had been intruders in this room.

"Whine..." Ace looked puzzled.

"It's not safe here," Tim said, "Baia, you stay back — no." He raised his voice to deny himself, a combat instinct honed through long-term training almost making Tim's hair stand on end. He immediately sensed that someone — or something — was watching them from the shadows. His mind raced, intending to send Baia to the Batcave to find Dick, but then realizing that leaving her alone was like sending a lamb into the lion's den.

"Don't move. If you trust me, just close your eyes. Until I say otherwise."

Tim gently backed away a few steps, leading Baia.

At this moment, she was well aware that she was a burden, and could only provide some assistance like a canary to Tim.

Every muscle in Tim's body was ready for combat.

He couldn't turn on the lights recklessly, nor could he let Baia be too frightened.

That thing seemed to be mocking him.

It might be an illusion, or it might be real.

Relying on his intuition, Tim flicked the Batarang out into the darkness — behind himself and Baia.

A brief, angry response.

He hit it.

There was no sound of the Batarang piercing flesh, nor was there a sound of metal embedding into the wall or falling to the ground. It seemed that the thing had disappeared along with the Batarang.

In the darkness, Red Robin crouched like a leopard, cautious until the feeling of being watched receded like a tide.

It had left, and it definitely wasn't human.

"It's okay, Baia," Tim breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay, it's gone."

The Batarang had a locator attached to it, so he could always track it down. He had fought against non-human entities before.

Turning on the lights, Tim found that the Batarang he had just thrown was stuck to the desktop in Baia's bedroom with some rather disgusting brown slime.

This was blatant provocation and intimidation.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath.

He finally managed to open the communicator and contact Nightwing, briefly explaining the incident they had just encountered, leaving Dick also shocked.

"How is that possible?" Dick said, "What could sneak into the mansion without anyone noticing? Even a Kryptonian couldn't do that."

"Come and see for yourself," Tim stood thoughtfully in front of the crack on the wall, "Perhaps that thing didn't actually come 'from the outside' to 'the inside'."

In no time, Nightwing and Red Robin, fully armed, were shoulder to shoulder in front of the wall in Baia's bedroom, beginning their investigation. Nearby sat Baia, who refused to be alone, with the Great Detective on her lap and Ace lying beside her legs.

To avoid worrying Alfred in the middle of the night, they didn't wake up the old man. Basically, all the remaining creatures in the mansion were gathered here.

Tim installed a sound amplifier on the wall, and soon everyone could hear the voice coming from inside the wall.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped."

"Awesome," Tim stroked his chin, "I guess this Prisoner Zero is the thing we just encountered. It seems that the 'prisoner from within the wall' has escaped to our side."

"Not 'within the wall,'" Baia said.

She could see the task description for this crack, and if that 'Prisoner Zero' appeared in front of her, it would also display the corresponding description. But she preferred to keep her eyes closed.

The gazes of the two former Robins immediately shifted to her. "What do you know, Baia?"

"A crack on the surface of the universe," Baia recited mechanically, "connecting to another world."

The description of the eye she saw also appeared.

Dick curiously asked, "So, is this result also obtained from observing celestial phenomena?"

"No, anyway... it's hard to explain. When I saw it, it was like I knew what it was." Baia chose to reveal part of the truth.

That's something to do with what our little witch forgot, Tim thought, and this crack is following her.

"Anyway," Tim wielded a chisel and knocked out a brick from the wall, "let's try it out first."

The crack suddenly appeared in the void.

"Cool," Dick murmured.

Baia's room was definitely not inhabitable now, and they weren't sure if Prisoner One or Prisoner Two would emerge from this crack. But the voice announcing the escape of Prisoner Zero seemed to be the guard over there.

None of the members of the Bat family believed in the guards.

Blackgate Prison was heavily guarded and strictly monitored. And yet? People still broke out every other day.

They had to find a way to close this crack.

Bruce had just left, and Nightwing and Red Robin were not willing to immediately bring Gotham's internal affairs to the Justice League, otherwise, how would the advisor manage to stay in the League?

Of course, everything had to be based on Gotham and their safety.

Dick and Tim divided the work. One went to check the reports of all the biological monitoring devices in Wayne Manor and found that this 'Prisoner Zero' was indeed an organism and could be monitored by the manor's alarm, which was somewhat reassuring. Although the fact that it slipped out of the tightly guarded ventilation ducts made Nightwing feel that its form might be somewhat unimaginable, regardless, the creature was no longer in Wayne Manor, and it was difficult to track it down for the time being.

Tim, on the other hand, conducted tests on the slime left behind by Prisoner Zero in the Batcave, and monitored the energy peak of the crack to see if it matched any of the old records of the League.

Behind the two busy figures, on the soft swivel chair in the Batcave, Baia was curled up in a blanket, holding the Great Detective while sleeping. Dick asked her if she wanted to go to her own room for the night, but Baia refused to leave the sight of the two Robins.

This also had a convenient aspect. Whenever Tim felt tired, he would whisper "goldfinch" in Baia's ear, and he would receive the sleepy girl's awakening magic.