Snowflakes float gracefully from the night sky, pale in the glow of moonlight and glittering from the illumination of street lamps. Some droplets of ice land in between the small crevices of buildings. Beneath the brick chimneys and smoke stacks, under the thick smog of pollution where even more filth resides. Snow starts building a foundation of slippery slush, beauty corrupted and turned ugly. Darkness has fallen over the city and taken with it the cheerful laughter of children during the day. Now, predators roam. Parents have hidden their young. Cold went from playful nipping to bitter biting.
Bats swarm the sky in search of prey. The violent flapping of their wings disturbs the vermin that hides away below. Rats scurry into sewer drains and beneath fully maggot loaded dumpsters. The shadows circle overhead, keeping them in check. Suddenly, an even greater shadow with a much larger wingspan overtakes the others. The smaller flying mammals give way to their bigger counterpart. The night belongs to them all. The hunt is shared. But the city belongs to HIM. The Batman.
Below, a family of three hurries down a sidewalk. They were late getting out of a store, and even later to catching a cab or a bus. With transportation no longer running, they find themselves running. The chill of the night snaps at their heels. They think about cutting through an alley to lessen the time that they're exposed to the cold's bite. They foolishly try the shortcut. A young boy runs in between his mother and father, all of them oblivious to the phantom stranger ahead of them that blocks the alley's path.
Like the ghost of Christmas' past, a man holds the family at gunpoint. He demands a wallet from the boy's father. The proud parent steps in front of his child protectively. His wife at his side, silver necklace glimmering in the snow like a pearl necklace, is on the verge of screaming. All Might had died a long time ago. He won't be coming to their rescue. It's the holiday, so there are no police officers on duty to patrol the streets. Not even the current heroes are willing to sacrifice their personal time away from their own families to protect another's. Only one who knows what it's like to lose a family comes. The dark knight of the night.
A horned demon visage rises up from the shadows behind the family, positioned directly over the boy. White eyes contrast the black void of the monster's shape, narrowing to fixate on the man trying to mug the family. Suddenly, the gun in the bandit's hand begins to shake. His palms have become sweaty, fingers losing their grip on the firearm. The caped crusader doesn't waver though, not even the slightest tremor while having a murder machine aimed at him.
"Continue to point that gun at us.. and I guarantee you will never walk again", the vigilante come to the family's rescue speaks in a low and raspy voice that startles even them. The mother and father split apart, gasping. The boy in between becomes frozen in place, gawping at the ominous figure that towers above him.
The gunman lets out his own gasp through an equally jaw dropped mouth. The terrifying presence of the living shadow's threat holds a heavy weighted vengeance. The weapon slips from the man's hold and falls to the ground, sinking in the snow. After a moment of shivering in the night, exposed to fear, the cowardly and superstitious criminal flees. His boots leave indentions in the snow, a trail of footprints that Batman plans to follow later.
"Wise choice", but first he eases his posture to be less intimidating around the family. The would-be mugger wasn't the only one petrified by the dark knight's appearance. "Go home", he even reigns in the amount of deepness put into his tone when turning to address them.
The parents shakily nod, waving their son over. Once grouped together, the three of them scamper off just as quickly as the criminal fled. Batman is left alone in the alley, standing in the place of where the boy had stood.
"It's Christmas. That family has nothing. You should have given them some sense of hope", but the silence of solitude is short lived when the communicator in his cowl crackles to life. Melissa Shield communicates with him over the commline as his Oracle. She watched everything through the video recording lens that cover his eyes.
"The boy isn't hurt. His parents are alive. That's more than some people can hope for", Batman looks back to see if the child and his family are still around. They aren't. "Everything else is replaceable..", he whispers a breath of condensation before facing forward again. And then begins following the trail that the criminal left behind.
Melissa winces, sensing that the vigilante's words resonated with himself. When not Batman, he's Izuku Midoriya, the boy who had been orphaned and grew up unconventionally. She figures she crossed a line, that perhaps he did want to spend the night alone. "Wow. I've been blabbing in your ear all night, haven't I? I'm sorry. I'm still getting used to this. I'll turn it off now", she reaches for the button on her computer to cut the line and leave him to his vices.
But her finger stops short of pressing it, hovering over the button when she hears Izuku's response. "Don't apologize..", he still sounds sad but he's no longer using the voice he does as Batman. "And don't turn it off", she watches through the visual recording of his mask as he leaves the alley and enters the vast city, "I don't mind the company."
-AUTHOR'S NOTE-
And that officially concludes Riddle Of The Bat and this BatDeku fanfiction series! I had a lot of fun writing an elseworld of the Batman mythos, especially implementing MHA, so it's almost sad for me to end it. I had considered a third story to make this a trilogy, perhaps with Shoto adopting the Two-Face persona as the main antagonist, but this ending somehow feels fitting and I wouldn't want to overdo things more than I may already have after the first story. I feel like this open ended new beginning can leave a lot more open to the mind than what I could come up with. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this story/series and also hope you'll check out some of my other stuff! Thanks!