Robin's Egg

Egg-citing Start

The darkness of Gotham was always a little darker than normal. It was something that was easily missed by those who have lived within the town for a while, but it was always there. Off to the side. Right on the edge of peripheral vision that made it so that a person would be on edge yet not know entirely why. However, it could be easily dismissed by those who are used to it, and for Damian who had faced far worse in his life... it was odd how... off Gotham seemed to be tonight.

Tonight had been pretty calm during his solo patrol (all things considered): stopped a couple of muggings, pet a stray puppy he had found in a side alley (he also had fed the pup as well with some treats he kept in a hidden pouch on his utility belt. Batman and the others didn't need to know about that or else the teasing would be endless. Thankfully, Alfred never commented on him taking extra treats when he went to give some to Titus.), prevented a drunk man from being squished by an oncoming vehicle, and lastly, stopped an attempted robbery of a small pawn shop.

Almost all of these instances had happened early on in his patrol, which had excited him because it had been a while since he was allowed out on patrol alone after the last incident... Yeah, he still didn't regret stabbing that child trafficker in the shoulder with his katana. Even if, the guy had already surrendered and was begging for his life. Bruce had said that he had been "excessive" and had been grounded for 2 months with no patrols then an additional month of supervised ones. The man had deserved at least that much suffering for all of the hell he had put the kids in his care into.

A sudden cold chill had the vigilante skidding to a stop atop one of the many Gothic buildings that Gotham was known for. It wasn't because of the weather nor was it a gradual change like most weather is like. When he had vaulted onto the current roof, it was as though Damian had hit a wall of frozen tundra. The chill made it feel as though it was going to snow at any moment. Yes, cold and heat spikes in cities were a thing depending on the district but this wasn't normal. As well as how on edge he had been feeling since this night began, maybe there truly was something more going on.

That was when he heard it.

A whine and a gasp.

As if someone was having trouble breathing.

Running to the edge of the roof, Damian looked down towards the alley where he had heard the noise come from only to have his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

Towards the back of the alley was a kid, only a few years older than he was by the looks of it, clutching his torso as if his life depended on it as an eerie glowing green substance seeped out between the cracks. A green substance that looked oddly like Lazarus Pit water. Following the substance's trail, it looked as though the boy had maybe been attacked halfway down the alley and had dragged himself into his current position. A trail of the neon green substance led right to him.

Damian took another moment to look around for any signs of an assailant before using the fire escape to get down to the injured boy, only to see that this looked a lot more serious than it did from above. With the skill of years of experience as a League assassin, he crept up to the possible meta from above and assessed the situation. As Damian approached, an unending feeling of dread and death grew on the 11-year-old vigilante the closer he approached the other boy. It was unnerving and the closer Damian got the feeling of death grew.

He took in the boy from his perch on the fire escape a few feet above. The vigilante had been correct in his original assessment, the boy looked to be about 14 or 15 years of age. Lanky and skinny in a way that looked unhealthy but with the boy covering his torso the way he was, Damian couldn't tell if that was accurate or not. He wore a black hazmat suit with white gloves and boots that matched his wispy white hair. Though both were stained heavily with the green stuff. Upon closer inspection, the green substance wasn't the only thing that glowed... the boy's entire body did. However, it seemed to be flickering and fading as if it was struggling to remain present. Whoever this was clearly wasn't human but that didn't really matter at the moment.