*** Pov
Leaving the small boy in the hall, he was led by a tall pale man bearing an odd resemblance to a zombie.
The man's speech was strange,. but that was ultimately it; perhaps unsettling to the average person, but nothing more.
He had come to see a particular man, they had met centuries ago, seeking eternal life but had been thwarted by a man in a bat costume. According to what he had heard, the masked vigilante recently had appeared once more though from the looks of things this one seemed different 'Is the word inexperienced? It's like he just took up the mantle'
Regardless, he had his own objectives to accomplish, irrespective of the Caped Crusader's presence.
***
It was a moderate office, at least considering what he knew of the man's ego, but then again for people who had lived so much, they were nothing if not tolerant "It has been a long time Mr. Wayne"
The man with his side-parted brown hair gave the tall rugged-looking man a long look and then smiled "A pleasure, though you must be aware I currently don't answer to that name". The black-haired man simply turned his head to the side and shrugged with a wry smile.
"Small details". Dr Simon shook his head slowly and motioned for the black-haired man to take a seat while he continued to organize some documents with varying colored labels at the top into a brown envelope with the name Strange drawn over it.
"What brings you? I wouldn't have expected visiting orphanages to be in your list of hobbies". The black-haired man chuckled, interlocking his fingers and slowly shaking his head.
"I was just passing through, however, I did hear the news of ten dead police officers and two bottom dwellers". Dr Simon offered him a sly smile before placing all the files in the brown envelope, and then looking the back-haired man straight in the eyes.
"I did kill those two men, they served their purpose, as for the police officers, that has nothing to do with me" The black-haired man raised an eyebrow prompting Simon to shake his head "I'm serious".
"Since they were all your informants I had assumed you were tying up loose ends". The doctor shrugged, leaning back in his chair.
"I would love that but it wasn't me I'm afraid". The black-haired man paused for a while then rapped his finger on the table.
"Then about the other things we discussed", Simon scratched his head and pulled out his drawer pulling out a small file
"I had thought you were no longer tracking down your descendants and hadn't looked too deep but a small search did yield some results". The man took the file in his hands, tucking it under his arm as he rose to his feet. "Not going to ask if there are any here?"
"I believe that's not the case, seeing as how you deliberately brought it up". The doctor kept smiling as he watched the man walk out.
"Pretty sharp for a caveman". The man paused at the door and looked back with a small smirk.
"Instincts are a good thing…Doctor" with that he left the man alone in his study who only shook his head in response.
"How frightening, that man".
***
The jet black-haired man otherwise known as Vandal Savage walked down the hall with slow and steady footsteps, his shoes clacking against the wooden floorboards.
'This was productive, now on to Star City to get the lab operational'. He spotted something in the corner of his eye and immediately turned his head only to spot a small crimson-haired girl with emerald-like eyes, her hands and clothes stained with paint.
The girl stood there silently, clearly wary of the stranger who had entered the building. Savage turned his body fully to face her as she took a step back 'How cautious'.
He looked at a newly hung picture that hadn't been there when he had passed, which still looked like the paint had yet to dry.
It was similar to the others he had seen before holding a certain eerie but cartoonish style to it.
It was a drawing of a sad clown, painted with pale skin, green lips and tinted seaweed green hair and a frown on their face.
"Hello, are you the one who drew those paintings?" She slowly nodded and he offered her a small smile. "They are very unique, you have talent".
The child seemed happy but didn't immediately reply. However, they stopped stepping back and a small projection of a dimly colored rainbow appeared above her head. 'A metahuman, that's a rather dangerous charge'
Savage wondered, the ongoing emergence of these superhumans has been quite unsettling for him, they made his immortality feel almost negligible in the long run, but it wouldn't matter, soon.
It was ironic that a large majority of these meta-humans were his descendants especially those born with their abilities and yet here he was, his power slowly waning after thousands of years now in search of his descendants whom he considered useless.
He turned his head from the child and began to walk away waving the child goodbye before walking out of the orphanage and disappearing in the rain.
***
Boarding a boat out of Gotham he sat down in his quarters looking over the files, despite his claims of it being a small search the list seemed rather lengthy.
There was one thing of note and it happened to be that he had included people who might potentially be his descendants with no clear way to check their backgrounds or simply from lack of trying. 'This will be quite useful'.
He was impressed, he seemed to have enlisted help from someone, it was hard to say who it was from just this but it was good work.
He pocketed the scroll and picked up a small communicator "Prepare the site, I will be arriving soon".
"As you wish, Mr. savage" A voice distorted by the static replied to his commands confidently as he sat back in his cabin.
There was work to be done.
*** Polly pov
Watching him from the window Polly had her own thoughts on her encounter with the strange visitor.
"What a scary looking grown up, he's almost as scary as when you see Bradley at three o'clock in the morning". She watched the rain for a bit before jumping in excitement. "Now I have something new to draw."
She had been drawing a lot more lately her dreams or rather nightmares had been giving her inspiration. Sometimes, she wasn't quite sure if what she was seeing was real, but then she would wake up in the warm comfort of her bed.
'Lucan has been strange these days' she had known him for a while now long before his head injury and memory loss. she was quite surprised at how much he had changed or perhaps it would be better to say how he had gone back sane?'
She knew Lucan wasn't the most stable, in fact he wasn't even the healthiest, but after that injury a lot changed, he still had terrible stamina but that was improving.
He didn't ramble on about strange things, like other worlds and such, though he seemed to still space out a lot, he just seemed a lot more reliable. 'He can be a bit of a meanie though'.
She liked this change, this place was more of a hospital than an orphanage anyway, and with so few visitors it was basically a dumping ground for unwanted children.
But she was fine with that, she still had people she liked, people who weren't afraid of her and people who treated her nicely and no matter how long it would last she would always be satisfied.
***
"Begin the resistance tests" the machine hummed as electricity passed through her body causing her to scream.
The color of her pupils and irises faded leaving only her white sclera, then it started to glow the intensity increasing until her eyes became like two white beacons erupting into streams of light.
"Stop!"
She screamed, her voice distorted, sounding similar to a drawn-out howl much like the weeping sounds of the Willows bellowing in the wind. "You're hurting me".
The electric hum stopped as a wide screen opened up in front of her showing various images in vivid colors.
"You like colors, you love colors that shine, weare the shining colors". The electricity hummed again and the current passed through her body causing all her muscles to jerk uncontrollably.
"Make…it…stop". She wailed but the ones conducting the experiments seemed to be quite deaf to her cries.
There were no lights in this room, only darkness, no other colors, hands strong and large hands covered in black leather tugged, pinched and pulled at her skin, her assailants had no faces and she felt only pain.
"KILL ME…. PLEASE!" tears streamed down her face as the TV turned back on displaying objects in dark and grey.
"These are the causes of your pain, destroy them". The voices were cold and hollow, devoid of warmth, love, and hatred, repeating the same things to her over and over again.
"Only trust the light". Her throat hurt, she could no longer scream, her eyes felt like they were scorched and her vision blurred.
They turned off the machine, but her body continued to tremble, her emerald, green eyes that used glitter like crystals now looked like dead and dirtied glass, their light which made them so brilliant had been dimmed.
"It…hurts…it hurts" Her voice echoed in the darkness. There was no reply, no commands being given, nothing, only darkness "Help me…mum…dad….save me…. Lucan".
She was taken to a room full of injured and weakened people, vagabonds, people that no one would miss.
"Kill them". Her eyes widened in shock and she immediately shook her head, resulting in a slap across the face.
"I…I can't, my powers can't do that!".
"Is that what you think? Lights out"
The darkness of the room seemed to ripple, engulfing Polly in her entirety, her mind faded and she gradually couldn't feel her body anymore.
The room soon became filled with nothing but screams and blinding light.
***
She woke up with a start, her body drenched in sweat. She looked round frantically doing her best to fight off the confusion that came along with her forceful return to the waking world.
'it was just a dream'. She placed a hand on her chest breathing heavily and attempting to steady herself.'
She looked around, noticing that it was still night time, she let out a breath and fell back into her bed staring at the ceiling deep in thought.
'What a strange dream' Polly thought, she had been having these nightmares for as long as she could remember.
However their frequency had been growing, she couldn't remember the contents of the dreams, only the feelings they left behind.
She would wake up in tears with her body throbbing in pain, trembling, blank spaces in her memory.
She hated that feeling, it kept her awake more often than she could count and she hated it terribly.
Of course there were also good things that happened, like when she had found Lucan in the common room yesterday.
She enjoyed his company. His colors were warm and gentle, they were peaceful, She liked his light.
She had actually wanted to draw him after his return but she hadn't been able to tell him, it was odd, she had never been shy about asking anyone about these things before, when she asked the nurses they just giggled and told her to do her best.
'Now that I think about it everyone here is weird' she suddenly remembered the weird novels full of strange things the nurses would often leave behind. 'It was always something about billionaires.'
In the halls of the orphanage she was casually strolling through their expanse, even in utter darkness Polly wouldn't have had any issues as she could always see in the dark.
She soon heard footsteps and paused sticking close to the wall and peeping around the corner 'oh he's outside again, maybe I should scare him this time'
A mischievous glint lit up in her eyes as she buried all her previous complaints that had no place in what she was about to do.
***
"What do you think she's dreaming of?" One of the men in lab coats asked as he watched the drooling Polly smile.
"Not my business, not paid enough, just prep her for treatments, we have a lot to do before the sun rises."
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.