When They Descend Upon Gotham [Western Crossover]

[There are currently 100,000 words drafted. Due to ranking issues, updates will resume when the story reaches 500 favorites.]

[The main text is written in third person.]

My name is Elias Wayne.

In theory, I should be a great-grandfather of the Wayne family.

In reality, I have to work all kinds of odd jobs every month to pay rent to Bailey, the director of the orphanage. Otherwise, my roommate Robin and I risk being auctioned off.

My daily routine is packed:

9:00 AM: Set up a stall at the beach bathhouse and sell lemonade mixed with some unknown substance to street thugs. Honestly, I don't understand why anyone likes this strange drink so much. Maybe Gothamites are born craving thrills?

3:00 PM: Give members of the Court of Owls essential-oil spa treatments. They're very generous, of course. For certain customers who get handsy with me, I thoughtfully plant rose seeds in their cervical vertebrae.

6:00 PM: Hand out porridge at an abandoned church. The priest's gaze is getting stranger by the day. Yesterday, he secretly added "holy water" to my porridge. His feverish eyes were even more terrifying than the patients at Arkham.

9:00 AM: Water the black roses growing in the orphanage's back garden with diluted blood. Lately, they've become strangely fascinated with a handsome man with a white streak in his bangs, which is giving me a headache.

11:30 PM: At midnight, I count the coins I earned that day and work out if I have enough for Director Bailey's "protection fee" next month. Some of the coins still have wet blood on them, left by certain unruly customers.

Then I took a job from Landry to look for a black box in the Gotham Forest and unexpectedly ran into the man who had captivated the black roses. He looked cold and dangerous, but I accepted his invitation anyway and followed him to a safe house in the forest.

This fearsome-looking man not only gave me the only bed, but also took a work of literature from the bookshelf. His low voice held the weary weight of someone returned from hell, yet strangely soothed my nerves, taut for years.

Later, on a rainy night...

Bruce Wayne bought me for three million dollars. His long fingers undid the collar around my neck, his touch as gentle as if he were handling a priceless treasure.

But when he came closer, I caught a familiar scent: gunpowder, blood, and the same intoxicating aroma that enraptured the black roses.

I lifted my face and gave him my most perfect smile. "Hello, esteemed guest. Your generosity will be rewarded."

In the shadows, Jason Todd watched it all. The wound on his arm, left from tending the black roses, throbbed faintly.

Those damned black roses were getting greedier by the day.

And he knew all too well what Elias was like...

That seemingly well-behaved boy had something running through his veins more dangerous than all the lunatics at Arkham put together.

The blurb was screenshotted on May 6, 2025.

Theme: Going with the flow is also a way of life.