𝓐𝓹𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓑𝓪𝓽

Prologue

Apprentice of the bat

Prologue

Smoke billowed from the old brick factories that made up the slums of Gotham, also known as the narrows, rising into the night sky and obscuring God from viewing what might be the most sinful city on earth. Crime was frequent here, the only noise more common than a police siren was a gunshot.

The narrows were almost completely uninhabitable, and the City of Gotham had even released a public statement that the toxic smoke generated from its huge industrial sector was shortening the lifespan of its inhabitants. The city had promised subsidies for those forced to relocate, promised to clean up the mess they made, and promised to pay the medical bills of the children who spent more time coughing than walking, though the politicians and leaders and councillors promised many things, though never delivered on a single one. The city was more than content to let its citizens burn to fuel the greedy hellish machines that were the few ultra-rich who held dominion over the city.

Countless homeless and disadvantaged families lived in the condemned factories and bored up buildings, huddling for warmth even as the smoke burned their lungs. They had no other choice. No person would willingly choose to live here, apart from the insane monsters that also inhabited Gotham, twisted individuals who seemed to flock to Gotham like a moth to a flame. They were influenced by notorious supervillains such as the joker or scarecrow, usually sporting costumes in an effort to cargo cult a twisted genius they could never fully understand. I wish I lived in metropolis.

Everything was cosmetically better about the city. The city was always coloured and so invigorating. Metropolis just looked like a place where you could raise a family and settle down. Gotham on the other hand was known for a record low life expectancy.

Rain pelted the tin roofs of the crude shelters along the streets of the narrows, in which all manner of people attempted to peddle garbage to the most gullible people around. The people here were by no means evil, well most were, but some were just trying to get by, to survive another day and put food in their kid's mouths. I could relate, as both a survivor and a child who needed to eat.

The narrows were by no means a nice place to live, the toxicity of the environment physically poisoning its inhabitants, but it was home. I'd always dreamed of leaving the narrows, away from these blood-coated streets and suffocating air, out of this dome of misery and into the gold-plated streets of the outside world, where the birds sang and the children played, where I could play. Instead, I was here, in the narrows, bartering with a raggedy dressed man over a broken camera.

"20 Dollars kid" the man bartered, his gravelly voice indicated showing he was either a smoker or long-time inhabitants of the narrows, most likely the latter, as nobody here could afford to smoke. "Or get lost."

"How about a canteen? Or a bed roll" Putting on a show of being a child usually got you nothing but hungry here in the narrows, but it worked on some, not Pete though. "C'mon Pete, please?"

"I don't want your dirty bed rolls or your leaky canteen" He replied gruffly, "but I will take that can of beans I saw you snatch off Frank earlier"

Thievery was a common thing here, it was almost impossible for it not to be. People had to survive. I never stole though, I always managed to pay back whenever I took something. Somehow.

I reluctantly handed over the can, as Pete snatched it like a greedy dog and dropped the camera into my hands. It was meant to be my dinner, but oh well.

To most, a broken camera would sound like total junk, but to me, it was a motion sensor waiting to happen. Turning junk into arguably different junk just with a purpose was my favourite hobby. I'd always thought when I grew up I'd be a famous engineer or a genius chemist, but by the time my 11th birthday rolled around I knew it was a pipe dream, people from the narrows didn't make it anywhere unless it was 6 feet in the ground or Arkham.

I always thought if I just kept my head down and stayed out of trouble I could avoid either fate, little did I know it'd be harder than I thought.