BATMAN FOLLOWS THE HEAT"
(Bruce Almost Discovers Damian's Pocket Dimension Workshop)
NIGHT — GOTHAM ROOFTOPS
Damian left for "patrol" at exactly 10:00 PM.
Bruce noticed.
Of course he noticed.
Alfred had made tea, and Bruce hadn't touched it.
He was staring at a screen showing Damian's vitals and movement trail.
Dick leaned into the doorway.
"Bruce… no."
Bruce stood up.
"Dick… yes."
Dick sighed dramatically.
"Fine. But if Damian catches you, I'm not explaining anything."
Bruce didn't bother responding.
He was already gone.
DAMIAN — MOVING WITH PURPOSE
He sprinted across the rooftops, ignoring the Batcave surveillance blind spots he purposely built into his routes.
Tonight he had to acquire kryptonite shielding.
Tonight he would "borrow" from WayneTech.
Tonight the pocket dimension needed upgrades.
He touched his belt—
the portal key glowed once.
Perfect.
He dropped down into an alley—
And that's when a shadow landed silently several rooftops behind him.
Batman.
BATMAN — OBSERVING
Bruce was impressed despite himself.
Damian wasn't moving like he was patrolling.
No scanning.
No pausing.
No listening through corners.
He was moving like someone with a destination.
Bruce tracked:
body temperature
breath control
heart rate
micro-muscle tension
latent heat emissions
Everything was… too perfect.
And then—
Damian's body temperature spiked suddenly.
Not randomly.
Intentionally.
In a controlled pulse.
Bruce narrowed his eyes.
He's using the heat as a signal… or a trigger.
What was his son doing?
DAMIAN — AT THE PORTAL LOCATION
He stopped at a deserted construction site.
Perfectly abandoned.
Perfectly isolated.
He placed his palm on a steel pillar.
A glowing circle briefly appeared around his hand.
Key activated.
The air shimmered behind him like heat waves rising off a desert.
The pocket dimension door was beginning to form.
Good, he thought.
As soon as the door stabilizes, I can—
A soft echo hit his ears.
Step.
Damian froze.
That step was too heavy, too specific, too familiar.
Batman.
"Tt…"
BATMAN — APPROACHING
Bruce landed from a grapnel line, silent as a shadow.
"Damian."
Damian didn't turn around.
"Father."
Bruce scanned the air.
There was something… shimmering.
Something tearing at the surrounding electromagnetic field.
His cowl flickered.
What was that?
Bruce approached slowly.
"What are you doing out here?"
Damian gave the most Damian answer possible:
"Working."
"On?"
"…A project."
Bruce's eyes flicked to the shimmering distortion.
What WAS that?
It looked—
Wrong.
Artificial.
Dimensional.
Almost like—
A doorway.
THE DOOR BEGINS TO FORM
The pocket dimension portal flickered behind Damian.
Bruce stepped forward.
Damian stepped sideways—
blocking his father's view as the rippling air stabilized.
Bruce narrowed his eyes at the movement.
Damian never moved defensively around him.
"That distortion behind you," Bruce said softly.
"It's not natural."
Damian didn't react.
Bruce continued.
"It reacts to your heartbeat."
Damian's teeth clenched.
He had seconds before the portal fully formed.
Bruce took another step.
"Are you creating a new base?"
Damian gave a half-truth:
"Something like that."
THE PORTAL REACHES 80% STABILITY
Bruce's cowl sparks slightly—
electromagnetic interference.
"Damian… step aside."
Damian's eyes sharpened instantly.
"No."
Bruce stopped.
Not because of defiance—
he'd seen defiance.
This was different.
This was protection.
Bruce's voice lowered.
"Are you in danger?"
"No."
"Are you hiding someone?"
"No."
"Are you hiding something?"
"…Yes."
Bruce breathed out slowly.
"Then let me help—"
THE PORTAL FLASHES BRIGHT—SPLITTING SECONDS REMAIN
Damian had to act.
Right. Now.
He raised his hand—
Not to attack.
But to pulse.
A controlled burst of fire exploded from his palm, erupting upward like a flare—
purposefully aimed AWAY from Bruce, AWAY from the portal.
Bright enough to force automatic cowl shielding.
Bruce's HUD whited out for 0.6 seconds.
And in those 0.6 seconds—
Damian stepped through the portal.
The doorway collapsed behind him.
BATMAN — TOO LATE
Bruce's vision returned.
The distortion was gone.
No portal.
No shimmer.
No doorway.
Just an empty construction site
and a faint trace of Damian's heat signature—
one that ended abruptly in the middle of the air.
As if he vanished.
Bruce stood completely still.
"…Dimensional."
Dick landed behind him.
"Did you find him?"
Bruce didn't answer.
Dick followed Bruce's gaze.
"…Bruce? Are you okay?"
Bruce said quietly:
"My son just walked into another dimension."
Dick blinked.
"…Well.
That's… new."
INSIDE THE POCKET DIMENSION
Damian leaned against a table, breathing out slowly.
"That was… close."
He looked at the still-forming kryptonite core on the workbench.
He needed to finish this.
But he also knew—
Batman would now be watching harder than ever.
Damian tightened his gloves.
"Fine.
Let him try."
He turned on the forge.
He had a Kryptonian weapon to complete.
And a Night Fury egg to earn.
The Truth About the Pocket Dimension
The next morning felt… heavy.
Damian woke late in his private dimension house — the warm light from an artificial sun spilling through his window — but his chest was tight.
He knew why.
Batman and Nightwing had found his dimensional doorway last night.
They didn't break in…
But Bruce had left a small, perfectly folded note on the doorframe:
"Come home. We need to talk. —B."
Nothing else.
Damian had seen warlords write notes like that before killing a man.
So he dressed, cleaned up, locked the dimension, and headed straight back to Wayne Manor.
THE MANOR — NOT A CONFRONTATION, A WAITING
When Damian walked through the doors, the entire house felt… aware.
Alfred paused mid-polish of a silver platter.
Barbara closed her laptop.
Nightwing leaned against the stairs with crossed arms, not smiling for once.
Even Cassandra watched him with dark, sharp eyes.
And Batman?
Batman was sitting in the study.
Waiting.
Damian entered without knocking.
Bruce didn't yell.
He didn't demand answers.
He simply said, in that gravel-toned quiet that meant he was holding back a storm:
"Sit."
Damian sat.
THE CONVERSATION — HALF TRUTH, REAL TRUST
Bruce folded his hands.
"Nightwing and I found the dimensional signature," he said. "We found your door. We didn't enter. But you know I will not ignore something like this."
Damian took a breath.
This was it — the moment he'd been avoiding since the day he discovered the key.
"I wasn't trying to hide it from you," he lied with practiced ease…
Then paused.
And corrected himself.
"…I mean, I was. But not out of distrust."
That made Bruce blink.
Damian continued:
"I have a pocket dimension. A private one. The key chooses the door. Inside is a home — my home — and a place I can train, plan, heal, or disappear if I need to."
Nightwing entered quietly and leaned on the wall.
Bruce remained stone-still.
"You created it?" Batman asked.
"No," Damian said. "It was… gifted. I don't fully understand the mechanism. But the dimension is stable. Safe. And invisible unless you use extremely high-tier distortion scanners."
Bruce exhaled very slowly — relief mixed with frustration.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Damian didn't look away.
"…Because it was mine. The only thing that was mine. I've been shaped, trained, and used by the League since birth. That dimension gave me a place where I wasn't a weapon or a Wayne or an assassin. Just…"
He swallowed.
"Just Damian."
That hit Bruce harder than any punch.
BATMAN'S RESPONSE — NOT WHAT DAMIAN EXPECTED
Bruce stood, walked to the window, then back again — a full cycle of silent emotional processing.
Then he said:
"You're my son. You don't need to hide from me."
Damian lifted his eyes.
Bruce continued:
"If you have a pocket dimension, I won't try to claim it. I won't try to control it. But I need to know if it's dangerous. To you or to anyone else."
Damian nodded.
"It's not."
Bruce studied him.
"And you're not doing anything… destructive in there?"
Damian hesitated.
He was, in fact, building a Kryptonian-weakening weapon.
But he wasn't ready to drop that bomb yet.
So he told a controlled half-truth:
"I use it to train. Rest. Think. It's safer than the city."
Bruce accepted that — for now.
Nightwing broke the tension with a quiet smile.
"Hey, kid… next time you get your own pocket dimension? Maybe at least send a postcard."
Damian rolled his eyes.
But Bruce put a hand on his son's shoulder — solid, fatherly, grounding.
"You don't have to face things alone anymore," he said.
"If you need help with anything — anything — come to me."
Damian nodded, stomach tight.
Because the system mission would need to be completed in a year solar rather than lighter
And he would need help…
But he couldn't ask for it.
Not yet.
EPILOGUE — THE SYSTEM reminder
Later that night, in the safety of his pocket dimension house, the system fchimed again:
MISSION :
Construct a Kryptonian-Disabling Weapon (Non-Lethal)
Time Limit: 1 Year.
REWARD:
• 1 Night Fury Dragon Egg
• Dragon Training Manual
• Blueprint: Magical Bonding Pond
Damian stared at the holographic text.