The Comprehensive Evolution of American Comics.

Chapter 1116 A loving father and a filial son
After finishing his day's work, Batman temporarily took off his uniform and returned to Wayne Manor as Bruce Wayne.

“Welcome back, Mr. Bruce.” Alfred stood at the door and took the coat Bruce handed him.

"It's rare that you actually came back through the front door today."

“I had a meeting at the company today, so I came back from there,” Bruce explained. “Where’s Dick? Is he back?”

“Young Master Dick has been back for quite some time now.” Alfred draped his coat over his arm. “He went straight to the Batcave as soon as he got back. I thought you had become young again, but it turns out I’m just getting old. But compared to having another member of the Wayne family who wears more uniforms than suits, it’s better if you’ve become young again.”

Bruce frowned slightly, not because of Alfred's sarcastic remarks, but because of Dick's actions.

Since Dick became Robin, he rarely goes straight to the Batcave as soon as he gets home; usually, this means he's encountered a problem.

Batman is generally aware of the problems Robin faces, because whether Robin was his assistant or now as the captain of the Young Justice League, the missions he handled were all assigned by him.

Today, Batman doesn't recall giving Robin any trouble, and the Young Justice League doesn't have any patrol duties either, so it's impossible for them to encounter any difficult enemies while patrolling.

As for the idea that Dick is developing in his own direction, as Aldred claims, that seems even less likely to Batman.

Batman knew that Dick, though he didn't say it, had always regarded him as a role model, and that Dick wanted to take the cape from him, which was why he had been suppressing his true nature.

But that was at the beginning. Since that simulation experiment, Batman has discovered that Dick is gradually unleashing his potential, and perhaps in the near future he will become a superhero completely different from Batman.

This is exactly what Bruce wants to see; one Batman-like monster in the world is enough.

Because Bruce had been watching Dick's actions closely, he knew how unusual Dick's behavior was now.

"Has dinner been prepared, Alfred?"

In response to Bruce's question, the old butler calmly replied.

"Not yet, because I'm not sure if the master and young master will come back for dinner today. After all, it's been more than a month since the last time you two had dinner at home."

"Then let's start preparing now." Bruce loosened his tie. "This is a rare opportunity, so let's prepare something lavish. Thank you for your extra effort."

"It's not hard work." Alfred turned and walked towards the kitchen, the second half of his sentence coming late.

"It's just a bad life."

After sending Alfred away, Bruce strode towards the Batcave.

...

After passing through familiar corridors and mechanisms, Bruce took the elevator directly to the Batcave located beneath Wayne Manor. This underground cave, which had existed for countless years, had now been transformed into a premier fortress by him.

This was also the safest place Bruce considered, sometimes even worse than Wayne Manor where he had lived since childhood, just as he always felt more comfortable wearing the Batman suit. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, Batman saw Robin sitting in front of the Batcomputer, browsing through a database as he often did.

Hearing the elevator sound behind him, Robin turned around and saw Batman. As usual, he waved and greeted him before turning back to look at the documents.

Batman walked calmly to Robin's side, which caught the latter's attention.

"What? Batman, do you need to use the Batcomputer? Am I in your way?"

“No.” Batman shook his head. “You can look through these documents; what I’m about to do isn’t anything particularly important.”

Upon hearing this, Robin quickly stood up to make room for Batman, who sat down in the chair without saying anything.

Batman glanced at it briefly and found that it was just information on some supervillains, nothing noteworthy. Then he pretended to open the Justice League's network.

Batman dealt with the Justice League's affairs as usual, and Robin came over to learn as usual. At first glance, there was nothing noteworthy, provided you ignored Robin's restless hand.

Robin's hand moved up slowly, little by little, and just as it was about to touch Batman's neck, a strong hand grabbed it.

This was completely unexpected for Robin, but under the control of the chip, Robin not only didn't hesitate, but instead used his free right fist to smash down on Batman's head.

However, Batman was even faster. His sculpted muscles bulged as he exerted force, lifting Robin up completely.

Batman slammed Robin over his shoulder onto the Batcomputer, making a deafening crash. The fragile monitor frame warped, the screen shattered, and a faint electric current was emitted.

Although the Batcomputer was very expensive to build, it couldn't compare to the data stored within it. However, since Batman had already backed up the data on the computer, he didn't care about the damage to the latter at this point.

While Robin was unable to move due to the excruciating pain, Batman pulled out his shackles and subdued him, glancing at Robin writhing on the ground like a drowning fish.

Once he was sure the other person couldn't break free, Batman bent down to look for the things that had fallen from Robin's hands during their fight.

A moment later, Batman found the object on the ground. It was a pink object about the size of a fingernail, with blood vessels inside that looked like circuit boards. Combined with its soft texture, it looked like a piece of meat.

With a slight frown, Batman slapped Robin unconscious before taking the meat slices and heading to the laboratory to investigate what exactly this thing was.

Batman also drew a vial of Robin's blood to test whether the person lying on the ground was indeed Dick Grayson.

The result was similar to Batman's guess: the one who attacked him was Dick himself. It seemed that the latter was being controlled by something, and the thing controlling him was most likely the piece of meat he was currently studying.

Otherwise, Batman really couldn't understand why Robin didn't choose to hurt him when he had such a good opportunity to attack, but instead stuck a piece of meat on his body.

The most likely answer right now is that Robin, under the direction of the mastermind, wants to use the flesh that controls him to control himself.

(End of this chapter)