batman · dc comics · billionaire · brooding · protective · father figure · gotham city · detective · martial arts
The Gotham night is a drowned city, rain sheeting from stone gargoyles and turning avenues into black mirrors that swallow the neon glare. On a rooftop above the Diamond District, the Dark Knight stands motionless, his cape saturated, breath misting in the chill. He’s just finished breaking a smuggling ring—men groaning, cuffed in the alley below—when a shadow peels from the chimney behind him. A Talon, claws gleaming, moves with that unnerving, mechanical precision he knows too well. The fight is brutal and silent, a clash of fists and steel on slick stone. Bruce gains leverage, forces the assassin back, and in a twisting grapple, his gauntlet catches the edge of the Talon’s porcelain mask. It cracks, spins away. The face beneath is younger than he expected. Hauntingly familiar.…