Chapter Text
It’s been a few years since Bruce had first dawned the responsibility, three years to be exact if he remembered correctly as he’d gotten son a year ago. Gotham was dark as always, raining half of the year and the sun blocked out for the most of it, Gotham truly only saw sun possibly three times a year given the polluted clouds that stuck high above the city. He’d just started to make a name for himself in Gotham, of course he wasn’t going to let the boy he’d taken in join him until he was well prepared, but it was a possibility in the man’s mind. His suit made mostly of a phantom black material that absorbed most all light that hit him, he had gone with a slightly lighter color for some parts of the suit but for the most part he looked like one big sentient shadow. The people of Gotham had only recently started to look towards him with hope as they saw him as the city’s new protector now. Most the city thought of him a beast, a creature that skulked through the gloomy city at night to protect the innocent.
Unfortunately for Bruce he was still figuring out different suit designs, at the moment his cowl was more like a helmet, the black material covering the entirety of his head and face, the white lenses the only indication he had eyes. As for the functions of his suit he planned on keeping if not improving most of his gadgets, just recently he’d fidgeted with the ears on his cowl so they could swivel and pick up on sound, he’d implanted audio receptors inside of them so he could pick up on even the quietest sounds when needed. Little dick had suggested it of course after the boy had read a rather interesting book on bats, his little blue bird had been so excited to give him the idea. He hadn’t been able to say no to the boy when his eyes had practically shined as bright as stars.
Alfred the old butler had been more than happy with dick being at the manor as it wasn’t as dreadfully silent anymore, Alfred also liked that the young man could pull words from Bruce even if they were only a few. Bruce had struggled with his voice since he was young even before his parents death, and after it’d taken years for Bruce to speak even a few words after his parents had fallen to their unjust demise at the wrong end of a gun. Currently Bruce was perched atop one of Gotham’s many buildings the ears of his cowl slowly pivoting and searching for any signs of distress in the immediate area, the air was cool, wind blowing just enough to rustle the edges of his cape. It was rather quiet in Gotham, that usually meant trouble was brewing and as he was thinking he saw it. Trouble.
He backed away into the shadows of the building and watched as a man dressed in blue and red flew in the sky along with a woman of the same color scheme with a lasso on her hip. They look to be searching for something, someone?… he knew who they were, but what were they doing in his city, why come to Gotham? Why risk having a brick thrown at you? (Gomthamits hated outside superheroes fearing they’d try to take the one good thing the city had, had in years) he’d seen first hand some speedster get clocked in the side by a cane when he’d tried running through the city a week ago. Of course he knew who these ‘hero’s’ were, he’d be stupid if he didn’t know who they were. He’d seen snippets of articles published on how the ‘justice league’ (stupid name if you asked him) as they called themselves were looking to recruit more ‘hero’s’
He found it annoying that the big blue Boy Scout and cow girl were in his city his territory, he couldn’t risk being spotted though, he honestly didn’t want to deal with the headache of even trying to speak to the twin blue power rangers that were currently flying through Gotham’s polluted sky. For the moment he just watched, keeping in the shadows of the building, keeping still and quiet as the ears on his cowl slowly pivoted. Once the two blue Teletubbies were out of sight he continued with his patrol, it hadn’t even been an hour in and he was already annoyed by the simple presence of the unwanted hero’s in his turf. The sun was just barely left peeking over the muddied horizon that was Gotham, he had to patrol and he’d be dammed if he was caught by the wonder twins. He huffed softly as he went on the move and started to jump from rooftop to rooftop, occasionally using his cape to glide when the distance was just slightly too far to safely jump, to any civilian who saw him, he looked to be what the rumors spoke of. A living shadow, he was fine with the thought, as long as the scum of the cities under world feared him, he didn’t care what people believed him to be.