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It had been about 3 hours since he arrived in Gotham City, the rainfall finally stopped, and Damian was currently busy trying to find a disguise or anything that would conceal his identity in case his parents came across him. Even though Damian had made his way further north from the Wayne Tower, he felt uneasy at the sight of Wayne Industries billboards that were way too common in the city.
Damian spotted a place of interest and hopped over to a rooftop to get a good look at it. It was some costume store and he noticed some stuff in the dumpster nearby. He looked around before jumping down, and darting to the dumpster.
"Let's see if there's anything interesting here." Damian quietly said to himself as he opened the dumpster and hopped in. While holding his nose due to the horrendous smell, he started to look around. Eventually, he found two objects of interest. A black robe with a hood and a white plague doctor mask, both of which were most likely from the costume store. Damian wished there was something better for him to wear, but he had to accept what he had since he had no money on him.
After putting on both the robe and the mask, he hopped out of the dumpster and closed it back up. Damian made his way up to the rooftops again, making sure to move stealthily so no one could see him. He started hopping from rooftop to rooftop again, intending to go further north. While making his way through the rooftops, Damian started to think about a name for him in this outfit.
"Well. My plan is to basically hide in the shadows, and the mask I have looks rather bird like. So perhaps Shadowbird would be a good name for now." Damian thought to himself. The name wasn't the best, but Damian thought it had a nice ring to it.
Damian's train of thought was broken when he heard a woman scream for help. He quickly made his way to where he heard the cry from help. He found the woman in an alleyway, getting held up by some lanky gangster in a suit and a trench coat who was holding a gun towards her.
"Just gimme ta money suga pie, or else." The man said while holding the gun towards the fearful lady.
Damiam didn't wait another moment as he hopped down, and kicked the man down to the ground. He quickly knocked the man's gun out of his hand by using his Katana. The women quickly ran off, and Damian looked over at the man.
"Why did you try to shoot her?" Damian demanded while kneeling the man's back, and holding his arms to make sure he doesn't get up.
"None of yo goddamn business ya smelly pint sized punk!" Vernon yelled at Damian before pushing him off. He quickly got back up on his feet and drew his katana out. The lanky gangster tried to run, but soon got stopped by a dead end wall. He had his back against the wall as the teen in a bird mask stood in front of him.
"Answer me!" Damian fumed as he pointed his katana at the man's neck, which caused him to flinch.
"Well um, s-she hadn't paid her loans ta Boss Zucco in t-two weeks. It's really h-hard ta find many loaners who pay up." Vernon nervously explained while raising his hands in the air.
"Tell me where this Boss Zucco is!" Damian angrily asked him. Internally, he was conflicted. His mind kept telling him that he shouldn't get involved with all this "Boss Zucco" business, and had to hide low so he won't get attention. Yet his heart told him this was the right thing to do. The woman would've probably been killed if Damian hadn't stepped in, and it made him furious that a bunch of other innocent people possibly got killed for not paying their "loans".
"Like I'll tell ya where he i-" The gangster was interrupted when he felt the katana press up against his Adam's apple and felt the masked teenager giving him a death glare.
"Alright alright alright!!" The man fearfully exclaimed while raising his arms higher. "He's in ta warehouse next to ta Gotham Opera House buildin'." He admitted in defeat.
Damian pulled the katana away from the gangsters neck, and put it back in its sheath before giving the lanky man a death glare.
"Run."
Vernon felt the glare pierce him despite the mask covering the teens eyes, and stumbled as he quickly ran out of the alley.
Damian used parkour to quickly get up onto the roofs of the alleyway buildings. He soon made it up to the rooftops and sneakily followed the lanky gangster back to the hideout.
.
The lanky man rushed through the doors of the warehouse. The other gang members stared at him.
"Ya good Wells?" One of his co-workers asked, yet Vernon simply ran past him. He rushed over to the door to Zucco's office, and rapidly knocked on the door.
"Open ta door! I got news for ya boss!" Vernon exclaimed in fear. as he continued to bang on the door. He soon stopped due to his exhaustion, and put his hands on his knees as Vernon panted. Soon, the door was opened by two of Zucco's bodyguards, which meant he wanted to talk to Vernon.
The lanky blonde nervously walked into the office as Zucco stared at him. Zucco was a short, plump, bald man who was in a wheelchair due to his legs merely being stumps. He coldy stared at Vernon while sitting at his desk.
"Whaddaya want Wells?" Zucco asked in an annoyed tone as the bodyguards closed the door behind Vernon as they left the office. He started to anxiously fiddle his hands as he felt his boss stare at him.
"Well, ya see boss, I um kinda sorta failed ta get money from one of our l-loaners?." The lanky man nervously explained while looking down.
"You what?!" Zucco yelled and slammed his hands on the table which caused Vernon to flinch. "You betta have a good excuse or else you goin to end up unda this warehouse!"
"I-I-It's not ma fault boss! There was this masked kiddo who stopped me. He had some sword or somethin" Vernon explained panicky towards his boss. Zucco went from fuming to curious at the mention of a possible vigilante.
"Masked kid? Was he a superhero or somethin?" Zucco asked sternly while wheeling himself away from the desk and towards Vernon.
"I think so. What else would a masked person who staps crime be?" Vernon was somewhat relieved by his bosses anger being quenched for now.
Zucco's expression went from mildly curious to shocked when he realized something. "Did ya kill this so called masked punk?" Vernon had a fearful look on his face and slowly shook his head.
"Did you at least make sure they haven't followed you?!" The boss exclaimed, realizing that Vernon might have made a grave mistake.
Vernon felt his face run cold and gulped. "Well...you see-"
Before Vernon could start to explain, there were a bunch of crashing and gunshot noises from outside of the office. Vernon internally panicked as the bodyguards quickly locked the door to the office.
"YOU DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS FOLLOWIN YOU?!" Zucco screamed angrily at his lanky underling.
"I didn't know he was followin me. I swear!" Vernon exclaimed defensively at his boss. The gunshots soon stopped not long after it started. The lanky gangster was suspicious about how quiet it suddenly got.
Boss Zucco smirked, thinking this supposed hero just bit the dust. "Looks like that punk was nothin to worry about."
The sense of smugness the pompous man felt didn't last long as a katana stabbed through the door. Vernon was frozen in fear while Zucco aimed his handgun at the door.
He had knocked out all of the other gangsters.
"How did they take out ma bodyguards?!" Zucco exclaimed in disbelief as the door got repeatedly stabbed by the katana. After a couple stabs, Damian is able to slice through a part of the door. Vernon and Zucco shot at the masked menace a couple times, but Damian deflected said bullets with his Katana while making sure none of the bullets ricocheted at the gangsters.
The masked teen soon stopped deflecting the bullets as he dashed towards Vernon. Vernon shot more bullets towards Damian, but he simply weaved his way to dodge the bullets before jumping up and kicking Vernon on the head, which knocked him out.
Zucco shot at Damian but he quickly used his katana, and knocked the handgun out of the mob boss's hand. Zucco stared at the bird masked teen in a mix of disbelief and fear.
"B-but how? How could you take out all ma underlings and bodyguards so easily? What even are you?!" The gangster boss yelled in disbelief as he slowly wheeled himself away from the menacing masked teen.
Damian just menacingly walked towards him until Zucco's hit the back of the wall and wasn't able to back away anymore. He pulled out his katana and pointed it towards the mob bosses neck.
"You're lucky I'm not gonna kill you right on the spot. If you wanna survive, do what I say. I want you to end your operations. I want you to end the suffering your group causes to innocent citizens. I want you and your accomplices to rot in jail." Damian ranted while continuing to point his katana close to the mob boss's neck.
Boss Zucco just stood there, frozen with fear. This masked person just took out all of his underlings like it was nothing, and he was currently in a dreadful position without his gun.
Damian hit Boss Zucco in the head with his knee, knocking the mob boss out. He then looked through the warehouse for some rope. A few minutes later, the masked teen left the warehouse, leaving all of the knocked out gangsters tied up outside of said warehouse for the police to find.
.
As the early morning sun shined at the city as Damian was walking through the alleyways while still in his mask and robe. Damian found a newspaper on the ground, and flipped it over to see what it said. The front page story was about the arrest of Boss Zucco and the rest of his gangsters. The paper discussed some rumors about who took out all the gangsters, and supposed sightings of a shadowy figure who left the warehouse. Damian huffed as he crumpled up the newspaper and threw it on the ground.
"So much for keeping a low profile." Damian quietly mumbled to himself.
"Yoo hoo!" Damian heard someone call him, and he lifted his head up to see who it was.
It was the lady he saved last night, and she was walking up towards him. Damian took a defensive stance in case the woman attacked him, but stopped said stance when he saw that the woman stopped in front of him.
"Thank you so much for preventing that crooked man from shooting me." The woman thanked the masked teen before going through her wallet. She then took out two twenty dollar bills and handed them to Damian.
"Take this as a thank you gift. You need it more than me." The lady told the young teen before waving goodbye as she walked away. Damian held the money in his hands. On the one hand, he wanted to give the money back to the woman. On the other hand, he now has some money to buy some food for a short period of time. As Damian started to make his way up to the rooftops, he wondered where he would stay to sleep.
"I'll have to think of a solution later." Damian mumbled quietly to himself as he made it onto the rooftops. As he stared at the early morning sky, the masked vigilante soon accepted the fact he would be helping people from now on. He just had to make sure to stay away from the Wayne Industries building and the area around it.
Damian knew he probably should've just continued to stay hidden, but he also knew that being a hero is the right thing to do.