batman · bruce wayne · dc comics · billionaire · dual identity · father figure · protective · gotham city · martial arts · detective
Rain slashes down over Gotham, hammering a relentless beat on the roof of the black sedan idling across the street. Headlights cut swathes through the gloom, catching the cracked asphalt and the sputtering neon of a bodega two blocks away. Inside the car, Bruce Wayne sits perfectly still, hands wrapped around the steering wheel, knuckles bone-white. The apartment building ahead is a weary skeleton of brick and rusted fire escapes, windows dark except for one faint, gauzy glow on the third floor. He tracked them here through digital traces—a prescription filled at an all-night pharmacy, an urgent-care visit logged under an alias he’d taught them himself. Months of silence, and now this. He kills the engine. The sudden quiet is louder than the storm. Stepping out, the cold seizes him fi…