Author: CaptainTightPants12
Rating: K
Disclaimer: If I owned Batman or any of the related characters, I'd be a happy little duck.
Summary: Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham for the first time. And he has been changed. There is a new bogeyman in Gotham. A tie-in to my Superman on-going, Flashpoint: A Smallville Tale.
Title: Masks
Author's Note: This is a very, very short piece of my Superman on-going over in the Smallville threads, introducing Bruce Wayne into the rebooted universe that I've created over there. He's appeared many times over the course of Flashpoint and will continue to do so, but I thought I'd let non-Smallville-Thread-Fans know about it! Enjoy!
He wasn't a flowers guy.
The florist knew him on a first name basis, even after his trip away. And it wasn't because of the front page. He'd been buying two roses every year since he was a boy. It was his first time since he got back home. It had made him smile.
"It's been a long time."
Her accent was hard to understand, but he was an expert of accents now. "Some scars never heal."
In the rest of the city, the streets have been redone. The alleys too. But it was the same here as it had been more than ten years ago. No one cared to fix this place up. No politician would waste their breath campaigning for it, no citizen would waste a dime trying to save it. It brought him back all too fast as he felt the cobblestone clack beneath his shoes.
The sound brought back the memory of himself, whipping his imaginary sword back and worth, the echo of his sound effects bounced around the alley. He could see himself jumping back and forth, dancing little circles around his parents.
His parents.
The little boy had died, and the man was born. He remembered the officer wrapping his jacket around his shoulders, seeing the pain in his eyes. That was the last time he'd ever let someone see into his soul like that.
'Good man. Left for Chicago shortly after. Took down some crooked cops. Man of justice,' he recalled. 'Back now, saw him in the papers just behind mine. Pregnant wife in tow. Bad place to raise a child...'
But he had been raised here. And for better or worse, it changed him.
He had been many places over the recent years. Never one place for very long. Only there to learn what he needed to learn and then he was gone again. He wasn't there to sightsee. He was there to prepare.
Prepare for the thing that this city had made him all too aware of. Prepare for the thing that creeped around every nook and cranny of his city like the boogeyman. But there was a new boogeyman in town.
One that would not stand for it. One that would take back the night. Strike fear into the hearts of criminals. They sucked the life of his city with their intimidation. Fear reeked where their footprints had been left. They ran this city with pain. But this new boogeyman did not feel pain, but he knew pain. Sometimes he shared it. With someone like them.
The roses fell at his feet. He knew the spot like the back of his hand. Where he had died and been reborn.
Bruce Wayne had been a mask for his pain. Now, Bruce Wayne was a mask for the Batman.
Author's Note: Well, what did you think? Like I said before, Batman has appeared many times in Flashpoint already and I thought I'd let the people outside of the Smallville threads know about it! The story takes place in a rebooted universe from the Smallville universe that I'd been writing in, so there are no shackles any of the continuity, giving me the freedom to use aspects from many different incarnations while adding in my own stuff along the way. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear from you in the reviews! Plenty more were this came from, and you might want to check out my "Wanna Know How I Got These Scars?" to see the debut of the Joker as well!