A pair of low-heeled black sheepskin boots touched the ground, and behind Timothy Drake, no one had ever seen the green-eyed, black-haired girl who walked half a step behind.
The deep coffee-colored turtleneck sweater was embroidered with white tea flowers, paired with a short woolen winter skirt. Despite being shorter than Tim by a head, the girl still appeared tall and slender. At first glance, she was not the soft and cute type of girl. Walking side by side with Tim, both of them seemed quite out of touch with the world.
As soon as Ace got out of the car, he no longer behaved like a playful dog rolling around with Tim inside the car. Instead, he quietly and steadily followed by Baia's side.
One end of the leash was tucked in Baia's pocket, mainly because her hands were cold.
Since Tim had informed the hospital in advance that no reception was needed, after confirming their identities, no one came to disturb the two.
Baia smelled the strong smell of disinfectant in the air and found herself very unfamiliar with this place. It seemed that she rarely visited here, whether before or after coming to Gotham. With the system that had set her on the path of becoming a wet nurse, she was much more sensitive to death and pain than ordinary people.
She didn't like this place very much.
The blonde nurse at the triage desk saw the young master of Wayne's family and immediately exclaimed excitedly, taking out her phone and hiding it under the counter, trying to take a picture to post on social media. However, the phone stubbornly made a "click" sound when taking a photo, and Tim, who was walking towards her, had obviously noticed the nurse's little actions but just smiled indulgently at her.
So gentle!
Nurse Jenny felt her face heating up, as if she had just drunk a glass of specially prepared whiskey, dizzy from just one smile from Master Wayne.
Tim was already used to it.
After all, wherever Gotham Prince Bruce went, the media reporters always followed closely. He also occasionally attended a few business dinners on behalf of Bruce, and some of Wayne Enterprises' affairs were also partly handled by him. It was well known that Bruce Wayne intended to make Tim his heir, so he naturally attracted a lot of attention.
If he got angry every time he was photographed, he would have been furious long ago.
However, just now he had intentionally walked in front of Baia to block her. After all, she had been here for a short time, and Bruce hadn't decided whether to publicly announce that he had an additional adopted daughter.
Hopefully, this lovely lady didn't capture Baia in her photos. Otherwise, Tim would have to secretly visit her phone and delete the pictures.
"Afternoon," Tim quickly glanced at her name tag, "Miss Jenny. I'd like to know where the group of patients who were sent to the hospital this morning in a coma are now. As far as I know, they are no longer in the regular wards."
"Y-yes," Jenny stuttered, not daring to look up at Tim, "because their condition is somewhat special, they were still able to shout while unconscious, so the head nurse was worried that they would scare other patients and transferred them to the special ward on the third floor."
"They could shout? What did they shout?" Tim's fingers tapped rhythmically on the triage desk.
"Swallow." Jenny replied, "They shouted... swallow."
Tim's tapping on the table paused for a moment, then he raised his eyebrows and smiled at Jenny, "I see. Thank you."
After Wayne Jr. and the girl beside him left, Jenny remained dazed for a long time. She completely failed to notice that Tim's questioning was like a detective questioning a witness, nor did she wonder why he cared about this.
She just mechanically took out her phone, opened Twitter, selected a picture, and posted it.
LoveTimmy4Ever: I won't say more!! I'll just keep repeating and die!!!!!
The fans on Twitter were in a frenzy when they saw the chance encounter of the famous Drake's real mother fan with the main character.
Quiet and shy ordinary nurse Jenny sat behind the triage desk and, in just one day, produced a rather radical and chaotic evil story with Tim as the protagonist, which was 11,000 words long and received nearly two thousand likes in one day.
It's hard to say what kind of soul shock Tim endured when he hacked into her Twitter backend to delete the photos.
"Actually, I've always wanted to ask," Tim asked curiously, "why is your clinic called 'Swallow'?"
"If you have to say it, subconsciously it just feels right," Baia replied, focused on checking the unconscious people.
Only a minimal amount of information popped up on the system.
[Zero Prisoner] (Mind Link)
"Swallow, Oriole... Is it Zireael's swallow?" Tim joked.
Baia raised an eyebrow. "Your Elvish pronunciation sounds very nice."
Boys as big as Tim, even when busy, can spare some time to play games. The Zireael he mentioned is the name of the protagonist in a single-player fantasy game, "Swallow," in Elvish.
When she lived in the old apartment, she was often dragged by Holly, each with a controller sitting in front of the TV to pass the time.
"But I tend to think of the 'Swallow Potion' swallow." Baia added.
Swallow Potion isn't as well-known, just a healing potion in the game.
Of course, these are just their jokes. Whether it's magic or potions in the game, they can't become reality.
"Do you have any discoveries?" Tim leaned against a patient's bedside table, casually picking out a lily from the vase to smell. He had already analyzed the patient information here earlier today and knew it like the back of his hand. And further testing, he couldn't do in this capacity.
"Yes, but not many," Baia stood up. "In some sense, they are completely healthy."
Their health points were all at 100%, and even if some weren't, Baia eagerly topped them up.
The Moon Dew wasn't particularly noticeable, and since Tim would overwrite the surveillance, it wasn't normal for them to stay here for so long.
"Completely healthy, just unconscious."
"Just unconscious," Baia confirmed. "This may be due to some sort of... mental link."
"Are you saying that the Zero Prisoner has established a mental link with the patients without further harming them?" Tim pondered. "That's interesting. What's its purpose?"
Baia shook her head, deciding to leave the high-difficulty analysis to those who were really skilled, as she stroked Ace's back.
Originally lying down, Ace suddenly lifted his head and looked towards the door, which had been opened a crack at some point.
"There was someone there just now," Tim immediately got up and rushed to the door.
Gotham Hospital was one of the largest hospitals in the city, bustling with activity every day. The third floor of the hospital was not a secluded place, and outside the door of the special ward, there were various patients, hurried doctors, whispering relatives, and crying children.
Seemingly completely... normal.
Tim calmly observed everyone in his line of sight, while quickly walking towards the elevator.
Baia didn't lag behind, immediately holding Ace's leash and following.
"Good dog, did you smell something?" Baia patted Ace's fur, asking softly.
Ace sniffed around the door for a while, then pulled Baia towards the elevator.
If a big German Shepherd was determined to go forward, two Baias couldn't hold it back. Luckily, it considered its surroundings and the little master behind it and didn't run too fast.
Tim scrutinized every person getting on the elevator.
Something's not right.
An elderly face entered his line of sight.
Something's not right, his mind raced.
An elderly face... showed a smile.
That was Edin House. One of the victims of the Zero Prisoner, who should have been in a deep coma, lying in a special ward bed!
The face Tim saw from a distance immediately matched the information he browsed at noon!
The elevator door was slowly closing, and Tim looked annoyed as he watched him disappear in front of him.
He waited a second, the elevator was going up.
There are still more than a dozen floors above Gotham Hospital, and he couldn't just determine which floor this fake Edin House got off on.
At the same time, that face also caught Baia's eye. Baia recognized him from a distance because the system popped up a row of introductions the moment she saw him.
[Zero Prisoner] Multi-dimensional shapeshifter.
A shapeshifter. Now everything made sense.
Baia immediately reacted, asking the system first: Can I recognize it every time I see it?
System: It only pops up the introduction the first time you see it.
She scoffed and ran to Tim's side. "I know what that is, I remember now."
"I really want to go to the car to get my notebook," Tim said. "It would be great if I could access the hospital's surveillance system for facial screening now." "Alright. Tell me everything you know."
"Not much, it's an alien, obviously, a... um, multi-dimensional shapeshifter," Baia said.
"Enough. A shapeshifter, just like Mudface," Tim speculated, "And he can only transform into the appearance of his victims, and those chosen by it will fall into a deep coma. I don't know if there are any other limitations. Most importantly, I hate it. This arrogant creature is mocking me, but it ends here."
What infuriated Tim was that it dared to come back to spy.
Don't you think you're too confident in yourself? Gotham's Yam Academy.
"Afu." Tim pressed the communicator on his watch, suddenly remembering that he didn't have to do the surveillance himself, "Help me connect to Gotham Hospital's surveillance, import the facial information of the victims of the 'Zero Prisoner,' and start searching the entire building."
Tim hesitated on whether to evacuate the crowd. Once evacuated, this monster could easily slip out of the hospital amidst the chaos, undermining their efforts.
In broad daylight, he couldn't really transform into Red Robin.
Anyway, he had to take a risk now. Without alarming all the patients in the hospital, he had to single-handedly capture an invading alien.
He checked his equipment, which was basically nonexistent—what he could use for attack were only three special-purpose Batarangs. One could release high-voltage electricity instantly, one was a high-frequency sonic Batarang particularly useful against Kryptonians, and the other was an explosive Batarang.
After all, a suit couldn't really conceal much.
"Well, Baia," Tim sighed, "You might have to be succinct."
Sometimes, Gotham Hospital does explode.