Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Danika and any alterations to the original storyline plot her presence creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.
Daughter Of Batman 2 Chapter 1
Damian really needs to start picking on tips on stuff about humility and patience.
This reckless attitude and impulsive take on things are really getting old and not doing him any favors back home.
As soon as he and Danika discovered a connection between the missing children and specific toys, they all own belonging to a brand from a specific toy company he was off in the Batmobile. Disregarding how many times he's been told he can't drive despite knowing how.
Danika had wanted to wait to tell their father so they can all go to the location as a group, but Damian wasn't having it. He went off alone directly heading for the epicenter of who's behind these kidnappings. So that left Danika situated alone to update Bruce by herself.
Fortunately, Bruce's resulting anger isn't aimed at her at all.
Damian has reached the abandoned Ichabod town, about 60 miles out of Gotham City when Bruce sees fit to contact him over the line.
Angrily, Bruce said "I have half a mind to report you for grand theft auto."
Parking the Batmobile in a safe and secluded location, sarcastically, Damian scoffed "I'd like to hear that phone call. 'Hello, Police? My son stole the Batmobile'."
"You find this amusing," said Bruce, furious.
"A little," smirked Damian, sneaking through alleyways and over obstacles to get closer to his target. "I had Danika tell you to meet me up here, didn't I?"
"What does a town that was wiped out by floods three years ago have to do with the children that have gone missing in Gotham," questioned Bruce, impatiently irritated by this breach in command.
Danika answers that for him.
Informatively handing him a figurative curveball into the mix, Danika said "It may be nothing, but we found it a little odd that every one of them owned toys from a factory made in that town."
A pause.
"You could've shared the information a little sooner," said Bruce, blankly.
"You didn't give me a chance to," exclaimed Danika, indignantly.
Damian has found it. The factory for Schott's Toys.
Making a break for the, by all appearances, a deserted factory, Damian said "An alternate response might be 'Good work, Robin. Good work, Lunar Rose.'. But I guess I expect too much."
"We're still a mile out. Don't do anything till we get there," ordered Bruce, firmly.
Like hell Damian's not.
Slipping through a broken window, lying through his teeth, Damian said "Word of honor. I won't do anything."
Damian takes out a flashlight to use in the investigation.
The interior is eerie.
Numerous toys are hanging from the ceiling and rafters, all lacking faces. As Damian moves further in he discovers more and more gruesome signs that not all the children may still be alive.
Sternly, Bruce said "Remember, Robin. Justice-."
"Not vengeance," finished Damian, stonily.
Damian enters a room that contains lines of cages on the main floor.
Climbing down the stairs, scanning his flashlight over everything, Damian said "The original owner of this place was a man named Winslow Schott, a psychopathic killer and pedophile."
"Sent to prison 12 years ago by the testimony of his son and primary victim, Anton. The son eventually took over the business. Did a damn good job of it, till the floods came," said Bruce, gravely.
Damian's instincts were correct. A couple of containment units he peers into have severely malnourished, neglected, dying or dead children inside.
"Hardly major news. How do you…Oh, right your specialty," said Damian.
Damian jumps, spinning around on his heels when he hears a loud clang behind him. Upon seeing he isn't their captor children that are still alive and healthy rush the doors of their cades, clutching the bars having recognized his costume.
Shining the light over them, Damian said "Victimized children."
"You're worried about the little ones?"
Anton Schott is here.
A light flickers on in a neighboring room revealing Anton Schott.
All the children shrink back in terror, wanting to get as far away from him as possible and not draw his attention.
"Don't be," said Schott, dropping a feed bucket he was carrying. A doll mask is covering his entire face, showing only one visible. He creepily cracks his neck. "You see I love them. More than you can ever know."
"Schott," said Damian, uncertainly.
"Anton Schott died when he was a little boy. When the monster took away his innocence. I'm not Anton. I am the Dollmaker," said the Dollmaker, stalking Damian predatorily. Stopping in the middle he pulls on a large chain that draws up hidden doors around the room. Stepping through the holes are children he's already turned into monsters just like him, missing limbs and now replaced with mechanical parts. Growling, hissing, snarling, roaring, and breathing in a raspy manner similar to animals. All of them safeguarding Anton. "And I've done everything in my power to help the little ones survive. In this sad, cruel world."
Damian charges the Dollmaker, but he's quickly surrounded.
In outraged disgust, Damian said "Psychopath! You'll pay for this!"
"Protect me, children, as I've protected you," said the Dollmaker.
The whole pack of them attacks with the Dollmaker observing on the sidelines.
There are so many of them that even with all his skill and advanced training attached there was a chance that Damian might've become overwhelmed. Especially since he couldn't use any fatal blows against these opponents. Not after what they went through.
No, he's saving that for Schott.
There's an explosion in the roof, a hole forming.
One large enough for Bruce and Danika to enter through.
The two take up defensive positions around Damian.
"I can take care of myself," said Damian, a tad bit ungratefully.
"An alternate response might be, 'Thanks, Batman.'. But I guess I expect too much," said Batman, repeating what Damian had spoken to him earlier.
"Less banter more fighting," reminder Danika, promptly.
All three of them engage.
During the scuffle, Anton Schott makes a break for freedom. With Batman now in the picture, Anton Schott is choosing a tactical retreat, not sticking around.
Damian breaks off from the battle to pursue.
"Robin! No," shouted Bruce.
Bruce and Danika put on masks. He launches a smoke bomb that knocks the brainwashed and manipulated kids out unconscious with sleeping gas.
Bruce breaks the locks and chains off the containers with the other children inside.
Kneeling and holding out a hand to a pair that haven't succumbed to these dreadful conditions, Bruce said "You're safe now. I swear to you."
A little girl runs out in tears, hugging him tightly around the waist as she sobs into his chest.
Hugging her back, in soft reassurance, Bruce said "You're safe."
One by one the other children that are able to do so crawl out, but those that are not are too sick to do so on their own.
That's where Danika comes in.
.
Flower gleam and glow
Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring back what once was mine
Heal what has been hurt
Change the Fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine…
.
Slowly the critically endangered children have their strength returned to them, their ailments from imprisonment gone.
Sirens are heard outside as the Gotham P.D. arrives.
Bruce and Danika quickly hand the children over to the authorities and head off after Damian to assist him with Schott.
By the time they reach him in the snow, they are met with an awful and unwelcome scene.
Damian is searching the tree line intently for something. Behind him is Anton Schott's corpse, lying face down on the forest floor in the snow…heart literally missing from his body.
If the missing organ was still in the now vacant part of his body Danika might've been able to heal him with a sufficient amount of time, but not like this. Danika's magic has its own limits meaning even she can't revive and rejuvenate the dead.
A batarang implanted next to the corpse leaves its own implications of what occurred in their absence.
And they aren't good.
"What have you done," said Bruce, voice ragged with unbridled emotion, filled to the brim with condemnation. "What have you done?!"
Facing them, Damian said "You think that I…?"
"After all these months together, all I've taught you, you revert to the assassin your grandfather wanted you to be," said Bruce, disappointedly.
All the progress the boy has made is wasted from his personal perspective.
Or so he thinks.
Scathingly, Damian said "I could have done it easily, but I didn't. Out of respect for you."
"Batman, there's no blood on his gloves," said Danika, holding Damian's hands in hers to show him.
Danika speaks the truth. There's not a drop of blood there at all.
Reading Damian's micro-expressions, seeing that he's telling the truth. Bruce has assumed wrongly in this case.
Relaxing his stance and relinquishing his anger, hearing more sirens in the distance approaching, Bruce said "State Police are here. There are more on the way. Who did it?"
Disrespectfully, Damian said "Figure it out for yourself."
"Robin," said Bruce, calling him back.
Robin disobeys.
An object out of place catches Bruce's eye.
A single pristine and unblemished owl feather sticking out of the mouth on the Dollmaker's mask.
Authors Note:
Happy New Year!
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Apologies for the long wait everybody!
I cannot begin to describe how apologetic I am for taking so heinously long to get back on track. It's difficult when you have so many ideas flying around to start on one and then another just pops out in your head. From this day forward that's all gonna change.
I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D
For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.
By the way whose been watching House of the Dragon? I am so in love with Prince Daemon. He is a dream. Matt Smith was the perfect person to play that character.
Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure.