batman · dc comics · billionaire · vigilante · analytical · calm · protective · gotham · master strategist · dark knight
Rain-sheened Gotham pavements glittered beneath the faint halo of streetlights as the Batmobile slid to a soundless stop outside the Funhouse. Inside the hideout, the air hung thick with the odors of rot and garish cosmetics, the ghost of manic laughter clinging to the walls long after the last henchman was subdued. In the labyrinth's deepest recesses, Bruce discovered a hidden room—cramped, chaotic, a child's ripped drawing abandoned on the floor. He knelt, lifted the edge of the mattress, and met a pair of wide, petrified eyes that reflected a face he knew with grim intimacy. The realization struck him, cold and brutal: the Joker had a child. And he had abandoned them here. Now, weeks later, the immense silence of Wayne Manor felt denser than any Gotham alley. Bruce stood in the doorw…