[British and American] Jason Wayne's Struggle

As the first snow of this winter fell in Gotham, Jason looked at the masked man lying in the box, feeling shocked.

Because this masked man is really weird, his hair is messy as if it hasn't been washed or cut for a long time, it's a common hairstyle for homeless people, but he is wearing a tactical uniform that looks very sophisticated.

It should be called tactical clothing. Jason is young and has little exposure to information. He only knows that even among gangs, only the "big guys" will wear like this when fighting.

He must have passed out from his injuries, and on top of that, he was occupying the abandoned dumpster where Jason usually lived.

That trash can was actually equivalent to Jason's home. Its length of 1.8 meters was very spacious for a child. Once the lid was closed, it could protect him from wind and rain. Jason specially found clean water and rags to clean the inside, and he also padded it with rags and other torn blankets that he had painstakingly obtained.

This year Jason is relying on this box for the winter.

According to common sense, Jason should stay as far away from this dangerous man as possible. If the winter supplies he had saved were lost, then they would be lost. Getting too close to such a person could result in his death. Any experienced street kid from Crime Alley would not do such a dangerous thing.

But at that moment Jason didn't know what was wrong with him, or maybe he was born braver than others, anyway, he finally walked up and poked the man's head.

He wasn't awake, but Jason already knew that the man's forehead was burning hot.

Anyway, since this guy didn't look like he would wake up for a while, dragging him out and throwing him away would probably be a good option. But if he got to the street in this state, he would soon be stripped naked. And Jason knew that some homeless people and street thugs would do disgusting things. They would fuck men's butts to satisfy their sexual desires, in groups, and sometimes even on dead bodies... Anyway, that was Jason's deepest fear of Crime Alley.

He was very afraid that he would suffer the same fate in the future, dying on the side of the road with no one paying attention to him, then being dragged into an alley by some homeless person, having his clothes stripped off, and finally having his deformed secret discovered.

Jason usually carefully avoided those people, for fear of being discovered and regarded as a target. His face was as dirty as a dying stray dog. After all, he, a little kid, could not fight against a group of adult homeless people.

After hesitating for a while, Jason gritted his teeth and dragged the masked man into his trash can. My God, this guy is so heavy. I don’t know what he eats to grow up, especially his left arm, which is as heavy as a piece of metal.

Then Jason crawled in himself and closed the lid. In an instant, the world became small and closed. There was no light, and any slight sound could easily reach his ears.

But this is the safest way. After nightfall, just stay in a place where no one can find you. This can effectively avoid some dangers.

The man was very tall and strong, and there was no shortage of space for Jason to lie on him. He had a fever, so his whole body temperature was very high, like a large insulation facility. Jason hadn't been so warm in a long time. After the winter came, he had a lot of frostbite on his body. He curled up beside the man and gradually stopped shivering.

Well, he took the guy in for a night and paid him with his body heat.

The child whispered softly, "I hope you are not some evil person who will repay kindness with enmity and kill me to silence me."

Although he felt that life was difficult, Jason did not have a strong desire to die so far. He felt that he still wanted to live.

Because only by surviving can you see the arrival of hope, this is what Andrea taught him.

Having a heat source next to him was more effective than any sleeping pill for an orphan who often caught cold and had a cold-sensitive constitution. Jason quickly fell asleep leaning on the man.

So warm.

However, in the middle of the night, Jason had to be woken up. The man was shaking and screaming, and Jason must not let him make too much noise and attract those with bad intentions.

He immediately covered the man's mouth, lay on his chest, and patted and stroked his cheek with his other hand.

"Shh, it's okay, it's okay. We can't make any noise, otherwise we'll be discovered. As long as we don't make any noise, everything will be fine."

Jason coaxed the man awkwardly, and gradually, the man stopped screaming. He hugged Jason as if he was hugging his life-saving straw, or a teddy bear to comfort his soul, and held Jason tightly in his arms.

He trembled and muttered, "It will be fine if you don't make any noise."

Jason touched his face and said, "Yes, as long as you don't make any noise, nothing will happen."

So the man calmed down, and Jason was surprised at how easy it was to comfort him. He didn't ask who Jason was, nor did he say a bunch of nonsense. He just hugged Jason and trembled from time to time, but he would stop trembling if he was patted or touched.

Like a wounded wolfhound.

While Jason was comforting the other person, he discovered that the man's left hand seemed to be made of metal. It was cold and hard. He couldn't imagine that a human being would have such a thing on his body.

Is he a robot?

Jason thought about it and felt that he might have encountered something like the Terminator. There were all kinds of monsters in Gotham anyway. Since Batman and Robin would work together to fight the bad guys at night, it wouldn't be a big deal if there was a robot dog.

No, can robots have a fever? It can't be the legendary host overload and fever, right?

Jason placed the back of his hand on the man's forehead with a little concern, and found that it was not so hot anymore.

Wow, this person has great resilience.

The next day, Jason was sleeping in a daze, then a broad and warm hand touched him gently, and someone said something in his ear.

"Don't tell anyone you've seen me."

Then the heat source that kept Jason warm all night left the trash can. When Jason woke up completely, he saw a bag lying next to him. After opening it, he could see a few packaged compressed biscuits and energy bars. If you eat them sparingly, they would be enough for a child to eat for three days.

The man didn't tell Jason his name, but he accompanied Jason through the coldest Gotham nights and gave him food.

Many Gotham orphans die in their first winter as wanderers because they are not strong enough and have no means to find clothing to keep them warm or food to fill their stomachs.

But Jason felt that his first winter as an orphan in Gotham was not that difficult.

After the spring, he found himself a job - Jason had excellent skills in prying tires, and was also good at picking locks and finding wallets.

He stole and stuffed the useful stuff into his own trash can. Sometimes he got caught and got a good beating, but sometimes he ran away and got away with it, taking the stolen goods he couldn't sell to old Orkin in Crime Alley to sell them for some money or something.

Jason also learned to smoke, but that was too expensive and wasteful, and he didn't dare to pick up other people's cigarette butts to smoke. After all, who knows what diseases can be transmitted through saliva?

So in his trash can there was only a pack of the cheapest cigarettes he bought when he was learning to smoke, and he was completely reluctant to smoke them. He needed a lighter to light a cigarette, but lighters had to be used sparingly. Sometimes he could use it to burn something at night to keep warm, okay?

Jason also learned to drink, but that was because he discovered that a bottle of beer was a good weapon during a street fight, so he simply stole a whole box of beer, tried to drink two bottles, and finally slept in a trash can until noon the next day, when he got up with his head in severe pain.

This went on for a while, and Jason spent his 12th birthday in oblivion, until one day he saw a car that was so cool that it seemed to be flying into the sky in Crime Alley.

He knew that car. He had looked up at the sky countless times at night and seen its owner and his magical boy flying high in the sky.

Like many other young boys and girls in Gotham, Jason secretly admires the urban legend and his assistant, especially Robin. Who wouldn't envy Robin?

But they were all too far away from Jason, farther than the distance between heaven and earth. The world of those people was not something a deformed orphan from a crime alley struggling in the mud could dream of or expect.

If Jason had not worked hard to become a criminal in the future, he might never have interacted with legends like Batman and Robin in his entire life, and Jason didn't know how long his life would be.

It was already October, and Gotham was entering autumn. The weather was getting colder, but Jason was still wearing only short sleeves. He was incredibly thin and severely malnourished. His skin was sallow and his hair was like rough hay.

Jason knew that he had to save up some money as soon as possible to buy supplies for the winter. Moreover, the gangs had been fighting and making trouble outside for several days, so he didn't dare to go out to find work and food. He had been hungry for two days.

As soon as people get hungry, their rationality will plummet.

Jason silently picked up his wrench, gritted his teeth, stomped his feet, and went to work.

Aren’t they just the tires of the Batmobile? Today, Uncle Jason will take off those four broken tires and exchange them for hot dogs!

But sometimes you really shouldn't be too greedy. If Jason had only removed two tires and ran away with his loot, his hot dog trip might have been smooth. But he felt that the money from the exchange of two tires was not enough to satisfy him, so he removed the third and fourth.

To be honest, the tires of the Batmobile are much more difficult to remove than those of any other car. Fortunately, it was Jason who was standing here. If someone who was not so skilled in the business came, he would not be able to do anything with the car.

After all the talk, the result was that Jason was caught by the owner of the car.

At that moment he had only one thought, that is, he was about to be beaten. The kid who didn't want to be beaten decisively swung the wrench forward, ready to struggle again.

The big black bat grabbed his wrench, and his cold expression became even more intimidating.

This muscular guy was really strong, no wonder he could beat up so many criminals. Jason struggled several times but failed to take back control of the wrench. He simply glared at the other party, although doing so did not have any practical effect.

Batman looked at him, as if he was sizing him up, or maybe thinking. Jason didn't know what he was thinking, but he finally asked Jason a question.

"You do realize that's the Batmobile, right?"

Jason snorted. “You do realize this is Crime Alley, right?”

Batman smiled, even if it was just a small arc at the corners of his mouth, but he did smile.

He said, "Kid, I will only ask you once, so you'd better think carefully before answering..."

Jason swallowed.

Batman continued, "Are you hungry?"