Police were waiting when the passengers were leaving the plane one by one into the lobby, Damian stood to the side, his suitcases by his side as he was answering questions by a police officer. His white collared shirt was kept ironed, a black sport coat, black tie and matching pants, the GCPD badge on his belt next to his sidearm.
"I told them to sit down, that we didn't need to do this, they tried to open fire, and I just retaliated." Damian informed him
The officer stroked his brown mustache "And you do realize who those men are do you?"
"No sir." Damian kept his composure, his hands in his pockets
"They work to Roman Sionis a known crime boss in this city…" the officer paused "a powerful crime boss in the city."
"Detective Gordon!? Stand down!"
Gordon and Damian turned to a middle aged man with a graying beard, slight tan in his skin, his brown and graying hair was kept close cropped, dark gray collared shirt was covered by a dark black sport coat, black pants and matching shoes.
"Commissioner Akins, I was just wrapping up here."
"Gordon, head out." Akins looked at Damian "This man is the one who took out the terrorists?"
"Sir, they were Sionis' mercenaries, not terrorists."
"We'll get them down to the MCU and they will be determined how dangerous they truly are." He held a hand up to the young Wayne "What is your name?"
"Damian…" Damian thought for a moment, he couldn't use Wayne "Damian Astore."
"Well, stay out of trouble Mister Astore." Akins looked him over "I've seen you before."
"Sheer coincidence." Damian shrugged
As Akins walked away toward the security detail, Gordon stood back in front of Damian.
"I'm sorry about him, since my father retired; Akins has been fighting crime on every turn, he's kind of headstrong."
"I understand that one." He looked at him "Gordon….James Gordon Jr?"
"Yes that's right." Gordon looked at him, readjusting his glasses "Why do you ask?"
"Oh it's nothing important." He suddenly remembered "Do you know where I can find a man named John Blake around here?"
"Blake? Heh yeah, I know where he's at."
"Can you tell me?"
Gordon's instructions sent Damian to a restaurant known as the Late Night Bar and Grill, it was a very nice restaurant with some flowers on the outside with people walking outside of it, but no line leading to the door.
Damian got out of the cab he paid for at the airport, paid his fair and walked inside the restaurant through the front door. On the inside, it was a nice place, booths were on one side of the restaurant while tables and chairs were on a side with a large bay window setting, it did seem nice enough with the bar at the back with a series of stools in front, and he calmly walked over to the bar and sat down.
One of the employees, a young man about five years Damian's senior approached him "Hey, hey, we're not open yet!"
"I'm not here to order anything, I'm looking for John Blake, and I was told this would be where I could find him."
"Hang on one second." The man stepped into the back "Hey Johnny boy! You got company!"
The man stepped out with a wash basket, soap and water and began to polish the tables as another man walked out; wearing a dark gray polo, blue jeans and black shoes, a cane was the only thing holding him up, his black hair was starting to show spots of gray.
"So I take it you're here for our help wanted position?" The man asked
"No, no I'm not." Damian smiled "I take it your John Blake?"
"Yes I am, so why are you here young man?"
"I've come bearing a message." Damian leaned in close to Blake and whispered "Our mutual friend sends his regards…Nightwing."
John's dark eyes went wide as he realized who this young man was; he quickly looked to his employee "Raphael, take ten would ya?"
"Sure thing Johnny." Raphael set his things down and walked out the back door, a pack of cigarettes in his hand
John sighed as Raphael left and then turned to Damian "How do you know who I am?"
"As I said, our mutual friend sends his regards." Damian smiled at him
John looked at the man, wavy chocolate brown hair, hazel eyes….then it dawned on him.
"Your Bruce Wayne's son aren't you?"
Damian smiled "Yes sir. I am."
"Well, I would love to know where the hell they've been at for twenty years."
John led Damian to his car, a black ford Taurus, out in the back of the building "So, why are you here Damian? You never told me."
"I wanted to see Gotham City, my parents always talked about this city and I wanted to see it for myself."
John got into the driver's seat while Damian got in the passenger's "What about the restaurant?"
"I'm the owner, not the G.M.; I don't need to be there, besides got some personal matters to take care of at home." He started the engine and pulled out of the drive way leading onto 2552nd street.
Sometime passed and not a word was muttered between the two men, Damian just watched with awe at the sights, different buildings, gangs on street corners and the litter piling the streets. He could see the difference between Florence and Gotham, yet for some reason, he liked Gotham more it was late fall early winter outside his window, the brown leaves were almost off of the trees and a light covering of snow covered the grass and parts of the sidewalk.
"So…how did your dad know I was Nightwing?" John finally spoke up
"My dad has kept an eye on everyone he gave things to, Lucius, Alfred and you." Damian responded, a bit of a chill in his voice
"Well, if you're going to operate in this city." John made a turn heading into the Palacades "You're going to need to know a few things if you're going to live here."
The building they drove toward was abandoned, but still looked beautiful with light brown brick foundation, large bay windows and a circular driveway, the grass was still trimmed and a worn down sign was in front of it.
John and Damian quickly stepped out of the Taurus and approached the building, as John walked to the front door, Damian walked to the sign, it was old, but it was still readable. He silently read the words to himself.
Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Boys Home.
"John? Why are we at a boy's home?" Damian asked
"This used to be a boy's home. Problem is now a days the Wayne Foundation doesn't see it right to support these types of things." John replied as he attempted to open the lock
"Why not? Didn't my dad make this home an orphanage?"
"Correct, but because Wayne Enterprises almost went broke after your dad died, they had to cut funding to certain places, boy's homes and orphanages just so happened to be one of the many categories."
Damian walked up the stairs "And I take it there were other things that did cause it to come back?"
John nodded as he broke the door open by breaking the lock with his cane "Oh yeah, military contracts that went into prototype stages, never actually worked out, every one they bring up, they're quickly shut down. Production of new vehicles, security systems, basically the new board is trying to make Wayne Enterprises the new main power source of Gotham."
The two proceeded inside, Damian didn't have any other comments to make about the old house, only on close observation; they could see dust covered the place, the electricity wasn't working and everything just seemed run down.
The pair silently walked down the main hall and into the lounge, a large wall of library books still sat on the shelves and a large piano was not even covered. John moved his hands over the keys and tapped a few keys.
The shelf almost hitting the wall quickly moved out of place, John walked over and moved the shelf aside, revealing a hidden passage way leading to an unknown location.
"Come on inside." John offered as he walked inside
Damian looked around and followed John inside; the door slid shut and slowly began to descend.
The elevator slowly descended down, Damian felt impatient, he was wondering where John was taking him but he knew he was excited none the less. It emitted a small musical tone from the speakers.
"So, where are we going?"
"The place your dad left me years ago."
The elevator dinged and the door opened to a large metallic catwalk leading to a larger platform with a giant computer on the right side, a large circular platform was near a waterfall. A large sunken platform was near the main area with a series of costumes encased in glass behind the computer.
"What the…"
"Welcome to the Batcave, I made some modifications to the cave following Bruce's departure." Blake walked over to the computer and sat down at the chair
Damian walked down the platform and looked at the encased outfits, one he recognized as a plated armor, a second one was red and green, and it was extremely small with a domino mask over the head of a mannequin, another one with a mask similar to the tiny set, but was the same plated armor as the first, but with a blue bird like symbol going from the chest to each shoulder blade and a third one was full black with a gold bat like symbol in the center.
"So, I would assume you want to know about those?" Before Damian could even speak, he began to speak again "The first one is your father's suit, the third one is mine and the other two belonged to two people you don't need to worry about."
Damian looked at them "What became of Gotham?"
"Excuse me?"
"What has made Gotham like this?" Damian faced John "When my father died, this city was prosperous, it had a future."
John sighed "Well, I can tell you about that." He sat down in the chair and began to type, the giant screen above him came to life above his head "First things, first, you're going to need who to avoid in this city and why, so, let's start with the plane terrorist's boss."
The screen began to flicker and showed a man about six feet one, with a black skull mask and wore a white suit with a dark gray shirt and a white tie.
"This is the man that caused the plane and caused major problems in this city, Roman Sionis, also known as his street name Black Mask, a known crime boss, his origins…are unknown, but best we can figure out is that he came here with a group of about five men called the False Facers, they quickly moved into to Falcone's districts and took control of everything the crime family once did."
John pressed a few more keys and Commissioner Michael Akins appeared "You've already met him, the Commissioner is a man of few words but he prefers to let his actions speak for his words, his biggest goal is to succeed James Gordon and make a name for himself." John sighed "In my opinion, he has his head so crammed up his ass that when the crap hits the fan, it'll be too late."
He repeated the process as Damian came closer, the picture of Akins joined Roman's picture and a third one appeared, this man was short, bald on the top of his head with gray hair along the sides of his head, his blue eyes were covered by a pair of glasses "This is Quincy Sharp, the known warden of Arkham Asylum and a man who seems to having help. He's currently up for election for Mayor after the previous one died of old age. He's also extremely dangerous; he's attempted to kill several of the inmates of the city."
Damian looked at the three men, his eyes focused in on Roman "Why hasn't anyone taken down Sionis?"
"He has a lot of people on his payroll, cops, lawyers and judges." John looked at Damian "Why?"
"What if I said I want to? That I will continue my father's work."
"As Batman? That's a pretty big commitment."
"Criminals aren't complicated John." Damian looked at him "I won't be able to do it as Damian Wayne, as a man, but as Batman….as Batman I can become indestructible."
"Well then Mister Symbol, I can point you in a few places to get started." John smiled
Alright chapter 2 is up and I absolutely loved the way it turned out. I'm going to try and do a modified version of Damian Wayne's Batsuit since this isn't a cloth suit so I'm going to try and modify it a bit so it at least looks close to it and John will be a prominent character in this story along with some others who will appear later.
So stay tuned for chapter 3 where we'll be introduced to some more characters and the start of the assault against Black Mask