Little Miss Mischief- A Damian Wayne x OC Fanfic- DISCONTINUED

Prologue

On the fourth of March on the seventh hour, in the third apartment on the eighth floor, a young woman went into labor and later gave birth to a lovely baby girl.

Lana Cotello knew her baby would be special to some extent, after all, the child's father was a powerful descendant of Apollo, a deity in his own glory. She knew that her daughter would one day have to unlock all of her potential, but she didn't want that to happen yet.

She was just a child, this girl. She didn't deserve the burden of being a vigilante, or the burden of having powers in the first place. So the mother did everything she could to tamp down her daughter's capabilities. She went to mages, to wizards, and even other deities to keep her child from developing powers.

Nothing worked. 

Her mother just prayed that her kid wouldn't have to deal with the metahuman label that was always unfairly plastered onto those who were gifted. She prayed, and it kinda worked for a while!

And so, little Hazel Cotello spent 7 years oblivious to her abilities, but her mother saw all the tell-tale signs and symptoms.

Little Hazel would seemingly know when things would happen, grabbing the ice before she stubbed her toe, getting the fire extinguisher before their breakfast ignited, answering questions before they were even asked. 

She also had a knack of weaseling out of trouble just by cleverly weaving certain words and connotations together that put her in the right every time. Bullies and bad boys had zero chance against her, and she loved causing mischief, often victimizing those who deserved it.

 March 4th passed by once more, and her baby girl was gaining quite the reputation in the L.A. neighbourhood she grew up in.  

She was the "smart-ass", the "troublemaker", the "munchkin", the "little devil". Many people referred to her fondly while few didn't, the few often being those who Hazel would victimize.

Ask anyone  in the L.A. waterfront community about a troublemaker and they'd instantly point you in Hazel's direction with a chuckle or a scowl.

Lana tried her best to reign in her kid, and when she finally explained to Hazel what she really was, the girl took it back a notch, not wanting to accidentally hurt someone with her powers.

Now she was the master of many behind-the-scenes capers that occured in the neighbourhood, while her doting mother just half-heartedly scolded her daughter every time she returned home from one of them.

Hazel was a good person. Her capers often punished bullies, or shady people, or pickpockets at the harbor. Her mother didn't exactly want to discourage that. Her daughter was doling out justice in the smallest forms.

And then one day their lives completely changed.

Lana was on her way to pick Hazel up from school when three carjackers roughed her up and nearly strangled her to death. A bystander saved Lana and quickly got her to the hospital, the woman unconscious and barely breathing. 

Hazel hadn't a clue what had happened to her dear mother. She walked home after waiting at the school for two hours, she let herself in with the extra key she kept in her itty bitty backpack, and she set to work, thinking that her mom was working late and therefore wanting to surprise her.

Hazel quickly did all her homework, cleaned the house, and picked a bouquet of flowers from the garden to decorate the table with. She made a fantastically gourmet dinner of PB&J sandwiches, soggy pickles and cold orange juice, set the table, and waited.

The child waited for five hours. Just sitting at the table, waiting to hear the car roll into the driveway, absentmindedly hugging her favorite stuffed dolphin. She didn't turn on the TV, she didn't do anything to distract herself, she just waited.

It was nearly midnight by the time a car had rolled into the driveway. The girl had fallen asleep at the dining table, and was awoken by loud knocking at the door.

Instantly Hazel  rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and raced to greet her mother, opening the door to see two...cops?

Cops were superheroes in little Hazel's eyes, so she immediately dragged them into the house, showing them how well she cleaned it, showing them how she did all her homework, showing them how she made dinner, how she was a good kid just for her mom. 

"Sit pwease! I'll take your coats! We can have a twea party!"

One of the cops broke down, unable to take this any longer, unable to break such a pure kid's heart, and raced out the house.

"Why is he cwying? Is Mister okay? Did I do something wong?"

And so the crying cop's partner broke it to little Hazel that her mother was in life-threatening condition at the hospital.

And it was the hardest thing any of them had ever done.

Immediately Hazel demanded to see her mother, all her childish play and giggles being replaced by something much more mature.

Hazel spent the next few days refusing to leave her comatose mother's side, telling her stories and jokes in the hopes of making her mother laugh her way into waking out of her coma while the nurses watched with heartbreak painted over their faces.

And when Lana did wake up, she found she could not reassure her daughter that everything was going to be okay.

Because Lana Cotello had become a mute.

The next few years were rough. They both learned to speak in sign language, but Lana still had a communication barrier with basically everyone else. She lost her job at customer service since, well, she couldn't exactly speak to them, and the Cotello family was destined to be homeless.

Hazel though, was not gonna give up like her mother did, and so she started her hustle at the age of 9. 

She soon knew every nook and cranny of the L.A. waterfront, and so she was often called to deal with shipments and be a transporter. Nobody suspected a kid to be shipping anything valuable, so that's how she was often called upon. Hazel's street smarts were increased almost exponentially.

But Hazel wasn't a mule. She specified that she wouldn't be shipping anything illegal. If they ignored her, then all of a sudden their shipment of cocaine would end up as a shipment of icing sugar, and the client would immediately hunt the seller down. The seller would tell them that the kid probably did it, and they'd laugh in their face. No way were they stupid enough to send a kid to do the transporting! 

Hazel would then use her quick wits to weasel herself out of the situation, claiming her integrity that the package was sealed when she delivered it, no way did she open it, and therefore shifting all the blame onto the seller. Now the criminals would tear each other apart over some white powder and Hazel would waltz out of there, use the crimestopper hotline and send some squad cars over to the criminals.

If she couldn't do that, she'd anonymously send cops to bust them and seize the package. Hazel would use her little power of seeing the near future to get away nice and clean every time.

Once Hazel earned enough out of that, she dropped the hustle and got a job at the local marine wildlife center, where the child instantly fell in love with marine biology, especially the sea doggos!  She had a knack with the animals and befriended everyone at the center, and her mother was way happier knowing her daughter wasn't hustling and getting into dangerous situations. 

Lana finally recovered enough to get herself a small minimum wage job at a local disability-friendly coffee shop, working the closing shift and cleaning up.

Hazel was 16 when the wildlife center grew bigger and got a branch at Gotham Bay. That very year, she got a full-paid scholarship into the very prestigious Gotham Academy, and Lana instantly packed up their L.A. life so her daughter could become greater than herself.

Hazel got to keep her job- she was transferred to the Gotham Bay division- and Lana scored herself another job at a Gotham bookshop near some vacant rental apartments, one of which they rented.

And so, Hazel and Lana decided to drop the life they had in L.A. and come to Gotham City.

And in Gotham City, on a chilly October morning, is where Hazel's story begins.