Bruce Wayne

Chapter 05: Deliberate Hindrance

"Beyond getting out of restraints, you may need to escape the notice of your enemies after you get loose," Giovanni explained while standing behind Bruce in the backstage dressing room. The performance at the Bludhaven theater had ended ten minutes ago. "The ability to disguise yourself can let you slip past enemies undetected. Since you don't have magical abilities, you'll have to do things the old fashioned way."

Giovanni stepped over to his trunk for a moment and retrieved his makeup kit. Opening the flat box wrapped in black leather, he showed the contained items to Bruce.

"There are multiple ways to change your appearance," Giovanni continued. He pointed to a number of small bottles held inside the kit by bands of elastic. "These pigments can alter your skin tone, making it brighter or darker as needed. When applied to either your own hair or to a wig, they'll change the base color, darkening, lightening, or adding the color of age. See what you can do with it, and I'll check back with you in a few minutes."

Bruce pulled the first bottle out and unscrewed the white plastic cap. Squeezing a minute amount of the pigment out onto his fingertip, Bruce applied it to his face while examining the results in the mirror. When aware of how it spread and how much the color diluted, he put on more to create the desired effect. As he worked, Bruce changed his skin from the natural tan he'd developed during his training outdoors to a much darker shade more common to a Pacific Islander.

"Here, try this," Sindella offered as she noticed his efforts in passing and entered the dressing room to assist. She pulled a small makeup brush from the kit and swept it gently across his face. "If you blend like so, it will look more natural. You try."

The magician's wife handed him the brush, and Bruce took over, smoothing away the line between his natural skin tone and the places where he'd darkened it.

"That's right," Sindella told him. Standing behind him at the mirror, she watched him work, only offering the occasional word of advice to improve his efforts.

Bruce had barely finished his task when Giovanni walked back into the dressing room.

"How are we doing?" he asked.

"See for yourself," Sindella invited, taking a step back for her husband to look over Bruce's shoulder at the teenager's reflection in the mirror.

"Not bad," Giovanni accepted. "In fact, for a first attempt, it's actually pretty good."

Giovanni pulled out a rectangular, inch long sponge before tapping one of the bottles with his index finger.

"Try applying this color to your cheeks," Giovanni suggested. He pointed to a second bottle. "As soon as you're done, use this one on your cheekbones. The combined effect of darkening and highlighting key areas will make the appearance of your face decidedly different, almost redesigning it."

Carefully following the instructions, Bruce discovered the shadowing of his cheeks made them appear deeper and more sunken than usual, and the extra color he added to his cheekbones increased the optical illusion.

"Let's try something more," Sindella suggested. She reached into the trunk and removed a second makeup kit slightly larger than the first. Unzipping the secondary kit, she opened it on the dresser in front of Bruce to show him a set of prosthetics, everything from fake scars to larger noses and contact lenses of numerous shades.

"With your magical abilities, I'm surprised you have all this stuff with you," Bruce commented.

"We don't," Giovanni admitted, lifting the trunk lid for inspection. The box was empty. "We magically summon what we need before opening the lid. Most people don't notice, but we keep the trunk around for the sake of appearances. Speaking of appearances..."