Bruce Wainright has (onerule) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-09-20 01:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | batman, door: dc comics |
Who: Batman/Bruce Wayne
What: Narrative, tying up loose ends.
Where: Gotham.
When: Sometime after the villain madness and rescuing Selina~
Warnings/Rating: None.
Time was not something Bruce had in abundance under normal circumstances, which did not involve needing to share with another man through the door. Managing what time he did have was becoming progressively more difficult, but he did the best he could, and in between trips through the door and checking in on Selina, he managed to keep his word to the Gotham PD and continue assisting in the search for the missing babies the Joker had stolen and distributed about. With each child found, newspapers and tv reporters became less and less interested, having moved on to newer, fresher stories, but to Batman, publicity meant nothing. He was tracking down the children to right a wrong, not to garner attention.
Days passed, but after hour upon hour spent following leads, backtracking after dead ends, and dealing with hysterical citizens, every missing child (save for one) had been found, recovered, and returned to the hospital. The Bat was exhausted by the end of it; not so much physically, but mentally. The Joker's cruelty knew no bounds, it seemed, as those who had received the children were good people, decent people, who longed for children but, for whatever reason, were unable to have any of their own. Many were embroiled in the adoption process and had been so for months, even years, to no avail. Taking the babies from them had been difficult, and he'd borne witness to their tears, their anger, and their pleas, all without being to do anything but stand stoically by. Sometimes he attempted to explain, to offer condolences, but few wanted to hear either, and so he found silence was best.
But not all hope was lost. There were still the children he and Selina had rescued from Wonder City to consider, who were still being kept in a warehouse, well taken care of, but with uncertain futures. The Bat had visited every day without fail, but there was a point where even Batman could only do so much, and that was where Bruce Wayne stepped in.
The Wayne Foundation was non-profit, dedicated to charity, and when news of a group of children who had 'escaped' from horrible circumstances reached the certain ears, rules were bent and heads were turned for the right price. As an orphan himself, Bruce was the trailblazer for children in similar circumstances, and he pulled a great many strings in order to ensure that, rather than being placed in an orphanage or a home, the children were adopted as soon as possible, with priority given to the couples who'd been on the receiving end of the Joker's little gifts. It was a tedious process, but Bruce was persistent, and money and stubbornness combined always produced results.
Nothing, Bruce knew, would ever ease his guilt. But knowing that the children had a new chance at life, and that the Joker's sadism had not prevailed, was a start, as much as anything could be. What Crane had done still ate at him, however, and that was not so easily soothed by fixing what had been broken. Even with the babies returned and the Wonder City children taken care of, there was still so much weight for him to bear, so much wrong with his city, and so little time in which he could strive to save it.
That night, as he put on the suit and pulled the cowl over his head, the Bat decided a trip to Wonder City was in order, to deal with those who had owned the establishment where the children worked. Crane would be dealt with soon enough, and from there, the others would follow. He had no time to relax; he barely had time to maintain the playboy facade which protected him.
It was the cost of being who he was, but Bruce had accepted that long ago, and paid the price numerous times over. If he'd wanted normalcy, he would have left Gotham after the man who'd killed his parents had died and never looked back.