Chapter Text
Zach Ward had been a hero for around a year. Well, he said hero, but the only things he had actually stopped were some petty muggings and he usually only helped people get home at night if they were lost or looked like they were having a bad day or were sad.
It wasn’t his fault, okay! He was only in a small city, which could barely be called a city, and it was nowhere close to all the main cities where the real superheroes were. Hell! He was on the other side of America.
The only reason he had even started being a hero, or maybe a vigilante was a better term Zach honestly didn’t know, was because of all the big shots across America. And it seemed like a fun idea, there was no real crime in his city, he would like to think it was because of him but he knew that it was just because the city was peaceful, so there was no real downside to being a hero. Besides, maybe it would put his city on the map. Give them something to be famous for.
He had been aptly named ‘Warden’. He liked the name, it made him sound stronger and cooler than he actually was. He only ever got the name because of how he walked people home at night, especially old people since they couldn’t protect themselves in case something did happen, and then one of the old ladies' sons was a reporter, and he put in the papers as a side story.
Needless to say Zach could go to school with his head held high with pride, and people would look at him weirdly because of it, but he knew that at least some people knew who he was. So he was kinda like a secret celebrity. His first thought after seeing that in the papers was, “So this is what it’s like to have a secret identity.”
And now he was going big time! … or at least he hoped he was. He was moving to Gotham to go to its prestigious high school. It might not be the best high school in the world, or even the safest place in the world, and wasn’t that an understatement, but it was the best place he could go with the scores from middle school that he had, although he was only starting his junior year and had just been lucky to get a transfer there from his previous high school that wasn’t as good.
His parents have been dead for a long time. They’ve been dead for years now, so he lived with his grandparents. But they were so old that they couldn’t move over to Gotham with him.
He had actually only arrived in Gotham just today, and it looked peaceful enough. Or maybe he was just lucky that nothing was going on.
He had already contacted a place that he could rent for a fairly good price considering his budget.
And school started a week from now, so he had time to look around the area, find some crime and help people at night.
At least that’s what Zach tried to do, but it seemed that the people of Gotham were less trusting than he expected because no one believed them when he just said that he wanted to make sure they got to where they were going safely. Although maybe that made sense, it was creepy in a way.
It wasn’t his fault! It was just the only thing he could do to help out in his city. But now that he was in Gotham it seemed that the only way he could properly help was by actually stopping crimes.
So that’s how he found himself roaming the streets, okay he couldn’t go on rooftops like Batman he wouldn’t be able to get down fast enough to actually stop any crime if he did that, maybe one day if he had a grappling hook.
Zach stayed in the alleys, reminding himself he was more likely to find crime in there then out in the middle of the streets.
He knew how to fight as well, he wasn’t just doing this with no experience, he had gotten training classes in MMA, he wasn’t the best by any means but he could hold his own in a fight. And he never lost to the same opponent twice unless they completely changed how they fought.
Zach stopped moving as his fingers twitched as he heard a slight sound, it could have been nothing but this was Gotham, so he closed his eyes and focused on his hearing.
He heard it again, clearer this time, whimpering that was suppressed by something along with shuffling of feet. Now, Zach thought as he opened his eyes, that was definitely something.
He immediately made his way towards where it was, before stopping around the corner from it and checking. He wasn’t about to rush in blind, lucky for him it was just three people, one victim and two assailants.
He could do that. He moved the mask above the lower half of his face, turning on the store bought voice changer, as well as making sure the hood over his head wouldn’t just fall down immediately.
He turned around the corner and was fully prepared to stop his first real crime.
Jack and Johnny honestly weren’t expecting such an easy victim, it wasn’t everyday you cornered someone who had no way to protect themselves, hell not even pepper spray.
The girl was still pinned to the wall by Jack, a hand over her mouth. While Johnny went through her handbag to get her purse and anything else that would be of value.
Jack also thought it might be good, if they had time, to mess around with the women pinned to the wall. He always enjoyed the submissive ones who had no other way but to obey his will.
But as he was thinking that a deep voice was heard by all three of them. “Let her go.” It was commanding, and he almost did it, but turned to look at the source before he did.
Standing there in the shadows, a man wearing mostly black tracksuit bottoms, a dark navy jumper that had wide electric blue lines on. His head was low and neither man could get a proper look at his face, but they saw he was wearing a black face mask.
“Who the hell are you? You a bat?” Johnny barked out the question.
The man only walked forward slowly, but as he came into a clearer view Jack realised something. “A kid?” He muttered. “Go home kid! You don’t want a part in this!” Jack said to him.
The kid was way too short to be an adult. And the only ‘heroes’ in this city that were short and were a hero were them Robins.
“No.” The kid denied, still walking forward, hands down by his sides free of any weapon Johnny noted. “I want you to. Let. Her. Go.” The kid said threateningly.
“Or what?” Johnny said mockingly, his hulking frame towering over the small figure of the kid, although Johnny was abnormally tall and a bodybuilder. “You're going to fight-.”
Johnny didn’t get to finish as he suddenly slumped to the ground unconscious.
The woman let out a surprised breath at that, as she had thought that the kid was just going to be another victim of the two. But she was glad he was here now, she knew she was going to be safe.
Jack jumped back from the woman in surprise hands coming up to block his face with no form at all. He probably couldn’t win this fight, but he sure as hell wasn’t going down without one. “Lucky shot, kid.” Jack said, trying to boost his own confidence. “But you won’t get so lucky with me!”
Jack charged at the kid, only to have his arm grabbed and suddenly twisted behind his back as he fell to the ground. A foot was placed on his back as his nose hit the pavement and started to bleed.
“Stay down. I don’t want to hurt you anymore.” The kid warned, his voice still deep and not changing, and Jack realised that it was a voice changer.
“Like hell-!” Jack shouted in rage, trying to get back up, before his arm was suddenly twisted beyond its natural limit and a sickening crack rang out.
Jack cried out in pain as his arm was let go and flopped down on his back, broken.
“Stay down, please, this will only get worse if you persist.” The kid warned, stepping back from Jack and more towards the woman, quickly checking to make sure she was still there, which she was.
Jack could only grit his teeth as he stayed down, not wanting to have another broken arm.
Zach, or Warden, went over to the woman, who was just a bit taller than him, but he was still growing, give it a bit of time.
And now he was suddenly at a loss of words of what to say. He wouldn’t tell anyone, but he had practiced them lines in the mirror, just to make sure he got the tone right and everything else.
But he hadn’t prepared anything on how to comfort a victim. Does she need to be comforted? A quick look at her face with tears in her eyes and she checked nervously that everything was in her bag as her hands shook, told him that yes she needed comfort.
“Umm…” And suddenly it was just: No thoughts, Head empty. And so he nervously blurred out his usual greeting. “I’m Warden… you are?”
Before face palming physically at how weird that was. “Sorry… I haven’t done this before…” No Zach that wasn’t the right thing to say either. “... are you okay?” There you go Zach, third times the charm.
The lady nods hesitantly, like she’s unsure about it herself.
Zach sighs in relief at that. “Good, good.” He then checks his pockets, because he suddenly remembered the two people incapacitated on the ground and remembered he couldn’t leave them like that. He finally finds the zip ties and ties the unconscious man up while talking to the lady to calm her down. “While I’m doing this, why don’t you call the police, and then I can make sure you get home safely.”
The woman only scoffed in a way that makes it seem like what he said was funny. With a tilt of his head, she explains. “Y-You must be new Gotham. The police don’t do anything for people in this area.”
While she’s speaking she sits down on the ground, as she starts to feel lightheaded from the adrenaline in her calming down.
Zach looked at her in confusion, as he finished tying up the hulking bodybuilder, before only tying up the smaller man's legs because of his broken arm. “What about Batman? What happens to the people he stops?”
The woman shakes her head and points in a direction. “You're in the wrong part of the city if you want to sé Batman. He’s given up on this part of the city, hell, it’s even called Crime Alley for god's sake! There’s no hope for this part.” The woman says ruefully.
Zach could only look at her in confusion. It wasn’t as if Gotham was that big, at least compared to other places in America, and there were a lot of heroes living and working in Gotham. And they all just decided to… just give up on this side of the city? “No heroes come here? Not even a single one?” Zach asked testingly, there had to be at least one.
The woman finally let out a sigh at that. “No, there is one. Red Hood. Although I wouldn’t call him a hero. First appearance in Gotham, he takes over a lot of gangs. He used to kill people, and crime was a lot lower in Crime Alley.”
Zach gulped at that, this Red Hood guy sounded intense. But he seemed to be doing good for the area, seeing as the woman said that Batman wasn’t doing anything in ‘Crime Alley’ as she called it. “Used to? What happened?” Zach asked. This was as much for his own curiosity and in helping the woman to take her mind off of what had just happened.
“He started hanging out with the bats a lot more. No more killing from then on, although he’ll slip up from time to time, he isn’t as effective as he used to be. He’s just a ghost story at this point. ‘Don’t do bad things or the Red Hood will come and kill you’, but now crime here is just as high as it was before he came here.” The woman informed him, sounding passionate about it and angry at the Red Hood for stopping what he was doing despite it working so well. “What about you?”
Zach looked at her in confusion. “Me?”
“Yeah, are you going to start killing? Bring down the crime again like Red Hood did. If you're not, leave Crime Alley, don’t give the little kids living here hope that you won’t be able to live up to.”
Warden could only look away from here at that. He never considered killing. And it made him sick thinking about it, he even got dizzy from breaking that guy's arm earlier. But, could he? If push came to shove, and he had no choice, would he be able to kill?
Zach honestly didn’t know.
“... I don’t know…” Zach said honestly, a little lost for what to do. He didn’t just want to leave the people in Crime Alley if they were suffering, but from what the woman was saying, it didn’t seem like he could be the hero they needed. “I just got here, so I don’t know how everything works… and I don't know if I would be able to kill… but I became a hero to help people who needed help, so I’ll help if I can, just please don’t expect too much from me.”
The woman only looked at him a little disappointed, but with a look that seemed like she expected it. “What do you usually do to help people then?” She questioned, moving past the dark topic they were on before.
Zach just laughed embarrassed at that. “I walk people to their homes at night in case anything happens.” She looked at him like he was a creep, and although he expected it from his previous interactions with people from Gotham, it didn’t hurt any less. “It’s not creepy, I promise! It’s just my home didn’t have any crime like here, so it was the only thing I could do to help out.”
She just let out a huff at that as she stood, her body now standing strong compared to before where she was shaking. “Alright, walk me home then, and be my protector for a while.” She commanded jokingly.
Zach smiled beneath his mask as he stood as well. “That’s the plan at least. Lead the way.”
They started walking, and she asked him one last question before it would turn silent for the rest of the walk. “What’s your hero name then? Caretaker?” She asked jokingly.
Zach played along. “Well, funny you should say that…” She stared at him with her mouth open in shock, at the terrible name she said and the possibility of it being true. “Joking, joking. It’s Warden. Warden’s a lot cooler than ‘Caretaker’, don’t you think?”