Pov Dark Knight
The incident from the snow had left a deep impression on him, and he had quickly gone into investigation, surprisingly pulling up his records wasn't difficult. The man who had been known as Bradley lived a fairly tame life until a few years ago, save from when he was arrested once.
Looking at the mans biological profile in the bat computer her furrowed his brows 'Not a meta, but quite strong, maybe a bit too much for his own good, but human'
He was originally arrested for robbery, but the evidence that came in later which proved that he was in fact helping to subdue the actual criminals, due to his demeanor and appearance the cops who responded to the robbery mistook him as part of the criminal crew.
evidence and the store owners testimony later provided proof of his innocence but due to his arrest the criminal crew was able to escape.
'But after that the records go cold, he did mention a name before he died however, Willow wood ' he thought to himself while looking through the batcomputer and trying to find more of his personal information but finding the name he mentioned was proving difficult.
Given the mention of children, the dark knight was working under the assumption of it being an orphanage or at least somewhere with a lot of children. He had followed his tracks backwards but his traces had been mostly covered or destroyed, with all he could get out of it being the fact that he was involved with overseeing a lot of children.
That didn't narrow it down much. Walking into every single orphanage and asking if they were specialized in training assassins wasn't very realistic
***
The snow had made it quite optimal weather to be covered from head to toe while going about and as such the dark knight had dressed himself and headed towards the southern part of Gotham East Central which connected close to the north of Kane town.
This place had relatively lower crime rates but the people were as wary as anywhere else in Gotham, so he had planned to wander around and gather information about the place by talking to the alley thugs and pickpockets.
He had been wandering the area to get a good grasp of the geography when he bumped into something small. It was a child who looked like he was no older than eight years old, perhaps a bit younger.
His clothes were more draped over his body than actually fitting him, they looked worn indicating they were old or possibly not in the best condition, but the boy looked clean, not much like a street rat, he might just be lost. "Are you okay?"
The boy looked him over carefully, hesitating before finally extending his arm for assistance, dusting himself off from the snow, the boy narrowed his eyes at him and asked "You don't seem like you're from around here?"
'He's observant' The dark knight thought, after all they had only exchanged no more than one sentence with each other but after playing along and seeing how he came to that conclusion it was easy to see he was a rather smart kid
The boy turned around to leave before suddenly shivering, it was clear the clothes were only doing so much for him, he looked down at the boy's feet and could see the pitiable state of his shoes, and decided to take a small gamble, seeing as it meant his family was either not well off or perhaps he was an orphan. "Need some help?"
"What's in it for you?". The dark knight could only shake his head slightly, he was on guard, clearly not used to receiving help from others for free, but he was at least willing to hear him out.
The dark knight looked around for a way to make himself and the boy more comfortable, no matter how cautious the kid was, physical comfort would weaken his guard somewhat even if not completely.
"Let's move somewhere warmer, if you don't mind". The boy shrugged and seemed ready to follow.
***
The diner was warm, well lit, but with few customers ideal for a conversation you wouldn't want overheard, when they sat down the boy let out a long breath, the cold was clearly getting to him.
He ordered something for them both although he had no plans to eat himself it was more of a gesture of Goodwill.
The dark Knight furrowed his brows, the menus weren't particularly robust, but that was alright, he only needed to get what he needed.
Paying cash made things a lot faster, and covered any traces to him and was thus the best option for them.
The food arrived and the boy ate like he had been starving for days, it was clear he wasn't getting enough to eat wherever he was "You mentioned that there wasn't anyone taking care of you, does that mean you're in an orphanage? I heard there are a lot of them around here".
The boy gave him a strange look, which meant he had likely said something the boy didn't agree with, meaning there were either no orphanages here but the likelihood of there being no institution for children was entirely unlikely.
"What are you talking about? I don't know who told you that or where you heard it from but there aren't that many, in fact I think there's only one or two actual orphanages, the rest not so much, but what works works I guess"
There was a lot of information packed in that sentence, useful information at that, 'I wonder if he knows anything more' The dark knight leaned on the table "Oh, and how did you hear that?"
"I don't see how that's important." The boy said curtly, swallowing another mouthful of his food and changing the grip on his fork, the kid seemed suspicious of him now, perhaps, if he got a bit closer he would be stabbed in the eye which the dark Knight couldn't help but find funny
"I'm just wondering if you at least have a place to sleep, it's not exactly safe these days ". The boy shot him a curious glance, like he was amused by something
"I don't think a man who looks like he snatches purses and picks random kids off the street should be lecturing me about safety, I'm sleeping plenty fine thank you".
"The irony isn't lost on me". The boy had never dropped his guard since they had gotten here, if anything it felt like he was divulging information on purpose or trying to provoke him but he had just about gotten everything he needed or at least what he felt he needed.
So he left the boy there with some cash to at least get him some better shoes. After swapping out his scarf for another he hid himself watching the boy from the shadows, he had placed a tracker on the boy's jacket just before he had left the diner, something he felt off about the boy.
Back at the diner the way some of the staff looked at him was strange, in fact they never took their eyes off him, it would be a different thing if they were cautious of him for being a stranger in this part of the city, as the boy had mentioned he looked suspicious. 'But they didn't care about me at all, they only started watching me when I probed the boy about orphanages around here'.
That behavior had piqued his interest, it didn't make sense for them, at least to him to monitor a street kid so closely unless something else was going on that he wasn't supposed to be aware of.
Putting away the tracker he had snuck closer to the dinner to get a better look at the staff rooms, they seemed fairly normal. He watched as one of them stepped out through the back with a cigarette in hand and cornered him "Why are you watching the kid?"
The man grinned "I don't see how that's important to you". Pursing his lips he let out a loud and strong whistle.
Soon others had started to exit the dinner, with serious looks in their faces appearing far less than friendly holding items ranging from knives to baseball bats in their hands, they had come looking for a fight, well maybe a fight wouldn't be the right word.
The dark knight furrowed his brows and adjusted his cap, stopping a few feet away from them "A bit too used to violence for a Diner don't you think?". The man looked like he was about to answer when his tone flattened and he deadpanned.
"That is Irrelevant".
***
The fight was short-lived and had ended in his overwhelming victory, a far cry from his first encounter with Gotham's streets, he had nearly lost his life from that first encounter but now here he was and barely phased by this rag tag bunch of questionable nobodies. "It's time to move on"
He pulled out his tracker and quietly walked away from the dinner, leaving a pile of bruised, dazed and wounded people behind in the snow as he followed the tracker's signal. He trailed the boy in silence as he seemed to just be wandering about and occasionally looking over his shoulder or standing still for no particular period of time at random intervals 'Does he suspect he's being followed? He couldn't possibly know I was following, so he must have been suspicious of something else'
Adding that to the people who had just attacked him made for the image that the boy was quite aware of his circumstances so he's either one of the most cunning eight-year-olds in the world or he's being used as bait'
He watched the boy in silence until the day had started to dim, the boy looked up at the sky before muttering something under his breath. He started taking a rather strange route bypassing major roads and districts until he got to the outskirts of Kane town.
The boy stopped in front of a large wall and looked around carefully before scaling the wall with a lot of effort. The dark knight didn't follow him inside, he just took in the sight of the place and mentally remembered the route they had followed to get here and left.
***
underground Wayne Manor, Bruce was cross-referencing images and locations, combing through local hearsay and police reports.
However finding the place Bradley had mentioned was proving difficult, the location seemed to exist and not at the same time
The general consensus seemed to point towards it being an abandoned, dilapidated structure, but anonymous reports say they heard weeping coming from the area along with reports of ghost sightings late at night which led to the locals calling the location haunted.
Naturally all these reports were dismissed as no evidence of these strange events was ever found 'Or so they claim' he started to look through some missing person reports, mostly filed by the less affluent individuals looking for family and friends, some having been reported dead 'Hold on'.
"The state of the victims". His fingers typed on his keyboard rapidly pulling up the images of the thugs and the deceased police officers, at first glance it had been a simple shooting or stabbing incident, but upon closer inspection something didn't quite sit right.
The reports detailed some of the deceased dying with no external wounds, typically cardiac arrest, while in others the reports bring up minor burn wounds on the deceased.
Those with neither of the two had several knife wounds, however an investigation revealed that the victims had died quite some time before the actual infliction of the wound "So someone is trying to cover it up at the very least"
"Hard at work sir?" An older, strict but well mannered voice asked entering the underground with a towel in his hands "I do advise you to take a rest master Bruce, I trust you haven't forgotten you are expected at a social arrangement this evening, it is the usual practice for the host to actually attend after all". The man spoke, glancing at the computer.
"Cancel it, I'll make an excuse later". He said, rising from his seat.
"And if I may, where is it you plan on going?"
"A haunted house"
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.