Disclaimer: Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer. I will not continue to add it to every chapter.
Chapter 2
February 2010:
The founding members of the Justice League were having a meeting in their HQ, to discuss the newest vigilante. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman had all founded the Justice League to protect the Earth from an extraterrestrial threat. Although Batman was the formally elected leader of the League and everyone else was considered equal, the founders meetings were where all big decisions were made that did not directly affect the League as a whole.
Superman had asked Batman to call the founders for a meeting after hearing quiet rumours of a vigilante named Daredevil who was looking after Hell's Kitchen. He was nervous of the new vigilante because of all the secrecy people had when they were discussing him, it was also concerning that no one had even gone to the news or publicised the presence of a vigilante who protected the people.
Superman stood when everyone was gathered, "Thank you all for coming. It has recently come to my attention that Hell's Kitchen now has a vigilante looking out for it." he paused and heard everyone,except Batman that is, make sighs of relief. Hell's Kitchen had been a point of contention and concern as no member of the Justice League could justify working there because there were no actual villains, only mafia families, gangs, and crime lords, there weren't any drugs though. Drug lords still prefered to stay in Gotham.
"I know what a relief that is, but the only reason I heard anything was because I heard a reporter who had come back to Metropolis from visiting a cousin who loved there comment that there was a new vigilante. There wasn't any mention in any form of news about it, not even on social media. She seemed worried by just mentioning it. This is concerning, why is everyone so scared to talk about a vigilante in a place that so desperately needs the help?"
He looked around the room, hoping that someone could shed some light on the topic.
Batman stood up and pulled up some images on the computer screens that were in front of everyone. "There is a reason why the presence of the new vigilante has not been publicised. As you all know, Hell's Kitchen is controlled by gangs, the mafia, and even crime lords. The various news programs are under their control. If you were the Kingpin of the area, a gang leader, or mafia head, you would not want word getting out about a vigilante in the area. It is likely that the people are too terrified of these crime lords to spread the word. If they did, they would put themselves and their families at risk."
Wonder Woman spoke up, "Batman, do you know anything about this vigilante? Anything at all?"
"Not yet, I know that he is called Daredevil, and that he covers the upper half of his face. No one has been able to get a good look at him. All I know is that he just started recently, he pops up wherever someone needs help, helps them, then disappears after telling them to call the police to pick up the criminal. Not like the police will do anything to help, they are so corrupt that even the clean cops can't do anything. I will investigate this Daredevil effective immediately. If there is nothing else that you think we should discuss, I will be going. I left Robin patrolling in Gotham and it's been awhile since there was a breakout attempt from Arkham."
When no one said anything, Batman turned and left.
He saw the importance of these founder meetings, but they could be tedious. He had heard of Daredevil, and it was annoying him that he couldn't find any information from his usual contacts in Hell's Kitchen as they were all being blackmailed into keeping quiet. He needed to know who it was that was helping his neighbor city. Batman hated not knowing things. On a brighter side, he could finally tell his adopted son that he had been able to confirm Matt Murdock's return to Saint Agnes Orphanage. He had been keeping an eye out for any mention of the boy so he could finally meet the boy who helped his ward recover from the death of his parents. Dick would be so excited to meet his old friend again even though it had been three years since they had last seen each other.
When Batman returned to Gotham, he went into the cave to continue to search for information about Daredevil. When he couldn't find anything, he took of the cowl and Bruce Wayne emerged from the Batcave. When Robin returned from patrol, he quickly changed and sat down with Bruce for dinner. "Dick, I need to go into Hell's Kitchen tomorrow to look into the new vigilante, Daredevil. I will also look into Matt Murdock, as he has returned to the orphanage. Would you like to join me?" " I would love to Bruce, but Wally and I had been planning to spent the weekend in Central, and I can't just change our plans all of a sudden, not to mention that I have a unit test to study for for my US History class." "Ok then, I forgot that you had plans for the weekend, it completely slipped my mind between preparing for the inevitable breakout from Arkham that is taking longer than normal which is a point of concern, along with investigating Daredevil." "Don't worry about it Bruce. You have had a lot on your mind. If you see Matt, could you invite him here, I really want to reconnect with him. He was my first friend outside of the circus after all." Bruce just nodded and finished eating before preparing for a weekend visit to Hell's Kitchen to hopefully find out who Daredevil is.
When he finally arrived in Hell's Kitchen, he decided to disguise himself so that he would not be recognized as Bruce Wayne, and ask around to try to glean information about Daredevil. He heard that "He always arrives just before anything really bad happens" "No one ever sees his face, he wears a black mask over his face that completely covers his eyes" and even "he saved my life, I was nearly killed by a member of the gang/mafia who was mad about my being late on my protection fees because my business was destroyed in another turf war."
He had known that things were bad, he just never knew how bad. It seemed that Daredevil was really looking out for the people as best as he could for being just one man. Random crimes were decreasing in amount, but the rate of organized, well planned crimes were beginning to increase. That was to be expected, it had been the same in Gotham and Bludhaven when he had begun as well. The criminals were beginning to account for vigilante actions and were beginning to plan accordingly.
As it was getting late, Bruce decided to return to his hotel and prepare to scout out Daredevil for the night. He would not approach, merely observe to see if there was anything defining that he could keep an eye out for in terms of figuring out his identity.
When Batman went into Hell's Kitchen, he could tell that Daredevil had a good handle on keeping things in line. He saw Daredevil stop a few muggings, and even put down a gang turf fight temporarily, he got the impression that the gang battles would have ended for the night regardless as both sides had vital members in jail for the night, and everyone knew that they would be let out in the morning so that the police could have a guarantee of no attacks to their friends or family for a week. Something that many were grateful for as they tended to be caught in the crossfire fairly often.
He observed that Daredevil was not affected to any sudden changes in lighting and moved effortlessly in areas with absolutely no light, and was not disoriented at all when lights were suddenly turned on, ruling out night vision lenses in the mask. Daredevil seemed to be a teenage boy, which caused some alarm as no teenager should be acting as a vigilante, especially one with no backup. He seemed to be fit, and had been well taught in combat. he seemed to pick up on even the faintest of sounds that even Batman with all of his equipment could not pick up. he also noted that while the masked vigilante seemed to prefer parkour and hand-to-hand combat, he was equipped with billy clubs for when the weaponry was needed. He was beginning to think that Daredevil was a meta, but he had no other signs of having powers. Batman noted that Daredevil seemed to be fully aware of his presence, but had deemed him as a threat, but not an active one.
When Batman returned to his hotel, he had a lot of information to mull over, but decided it would be prudent to get some sleep as he had a meeting with his ward's old friend in the morning. When Bruce Wayne arrived at the orphanage he was impressed to see that it was fairly clean and had no signs of any truly unhappy people, given that the residents were orphans. He called over a passing nun, "Excuse me, I was wondering if I could speak to a Matthew Murdock, he and my ward were friends when RIchard stayed here after his parents died." The nun looked flustered, but most people wouldn't have seen that as she schooled her expression into a mask of passiveness.
"Of course, he just got back from school. He is very intelligent, even though he was blinded all those years ago, he was still able to skip a few grades. He is currently a junior at the local high school despite being only 14. We are all so proud of him. We think he pushes himself so hard in school because his father wanted him to be a successful student."
Bruce just nodded, that fit with what Dick told him. He was still impressed though, being a junior in high school at 14 was an impressive feat for anyone, especially if the student in question was a blind orphan who most likely didn't have the support system to push him farther in school.
The nun led him to a room that was confirmed as Matt's when she knocked on the door, and called out, "Matthew, there is a man here who wants to talk to you. He says that he is here because he is the one who adopted your old friend Richard, do you want to talk to him?"
Bruce heard the soft voice say that he would be happy to meet the man who adopted the Romani circus boy that he had befriended as a child.
When Bruce entered the room, he saw that it was small and clean, so clean that there seemed to be no traces of dust, the room was devoid of personal touches which was to be expected. Matt probably didn't have much to begin with. Bruce decided to introduce himself, "Hello, my name is Bruce, Bruce Wayne. I adopted Richard Grayson about three years ago. He wouldn't stop talking about his blind friend who helped him come to terms with the death of his parents. I can't thank you enough for that."
"Really Mr. Wayne, it was no problem. He helped me as well. It was nice to meet someone who wasn't phased by my being blind, it was refreshing. It's nice to know that he was adopted by someone who is truly happy to know that he had support when he needed it. Would it be possible for me to meet up with him at some point."
"Of course, he would have come with me, but I decided to come here at a spur of the moment and forgot to take into account that he already had plans for the weekend. I can arrange for you to spend the weekend at my house next week if that is ok with you." Bruce couldn't shake the feeling that he had met Matt before, but that couldn't be possible. He would have remembered something like that. There was also the fact that Matt seemed to recognise him as well.
"I would love to come over next week. I can't wait to see Dick again. he became like a brother to me."
As Matt walked across the room to type a reminder on his brailler, bruce noticed that Matt had the same way of walking that Daredevil had. Was it possible? Could Matt be Daredevil? They had the same walk, and being blind would explain the fact that he wasn't affected by changes in lighting. There was also the fact that he had been taken away by a strange blind man three years ago, and had returned about a month before Daredevil appeared. He would confirm his suspicions tonight. "Ok then, I'll drop by next week to take you to my place for the weekend. Dick will be so happy to see you again. Goodbye." "Goodbye Mr. Wayne."
That night, Batman went out into Hell's Kitchen for the second night in a row and waited on a rooftop for Daredevil's inevitable appearance. It was no surprise that Daredevil quickly parkoured over and sat down to talk to him.
"You know, I never would have thought that Batman was a billionaire, I suppose Dick is Robin"
"You are correct, I never would have thought that Daredevil was a 14 year old blind boy. Out of curiosity, how did you recognise me? We never even spoke last night."
"That was easy, After losing my sight, my other senses were greatly enhanced, I suspect that the chemicals that took my sight contributed to the extreme enhancement. As for how I recognized you, I can hear your heartbeat, everyone has a unique heartbeat, I could also recognise your unique scent. I guess you want to talk me out of being a vigilante on my own here. Just to let you know, nothing will convince me to abandon my city."
" I wasn't going to tell you to stop. When you come over next week, let me train you. I know that you are already trained, but let me help you polish your skills. Take this comm, and call me or Robin when you get into a tough spot. These criminals will eventually learn your tricks and you could always use some backup. My invite doesn't just extend to next weekend. You already know our identities, so come over whenever. Even in the middle of the night. There will always be a place for you at my home. As far as the League is going to be concerned, I have taken you in as an unofficial protege. You will not ever be seen on the news as an official member of the news. You can consider yourself as an unofficial ally. The League will be keeping an eye on you of you ever need help. See you next week kid."
With that, Batman left. When the league asked about Daredevil, he merely smirked and said "Don't worry. He is no threat to us. Consider him my second, unofficial protege." That was all he said. That was all he ever needed to say.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed/liked/followed me. It was a real confidence boost. I hope you liked this chapter. Please let me know what you thought in a review. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Thanks again. I just want to say that I don't know if I will be able to keep up these rapid updates. I add chapters as soon as I am done writing them, and with school it is hard to keep them coming so fast. Please bear with me if it takes a while to update.
