Ellie peered at the boy from behind a tree in the courtyard. The children were playing together and she was told to stay with them while Oswald went over to the GCPD to assign an assassin to work with the cops, apparently a new criminal was killing cops that had previously complied to Oswald's crime license. So here she was, standing outside with the other children.
But there was one boy who didn't seem to be a complete moron. Granted he didn't talk, he couldn't, but he seemed clever for his age, 7, like Ellie, and she observed him from afar, though it's not like the attention was one sided, as she had noticed him looking at her too.
He glanced in her direction and she tried hiding again. Too late. He got up from the bench he was sitting on and walked over to her, tapping her on the shoulder.
"Oh- hi." She muttered apologetically, realizing it must have seemed creepy. He smiled and picked up the notepad from around his neck.
"Hi" he wrote. When she didn't respond he wrote something else. "You're the Penguin's daughter." It wasn't a question, basically everyone knew it because she spent most of her time trailing after Oswald anyways because she didn't want to spend time with anyone here, but she found herself wanting to be friends with this boy.
Ellie nodded and they boy wrote on his notepad again, "What's your name?"
"Ellie." She responded quietly. "What's yours?"
"Martin" he wrote. She tilted her head to the side looking at it. "Mar-tin?" She asked, he shook his head and spelled out the pronunciation under it. "Mar-teen"
"Nice to meet you." She smiled. He nodded and was going to write something else when a familiar voice called from across the courtyard.
"Ellie!" Oswald called, looking at her. She waved bye to Martin as he waved back.
"Who was that?" Oswald asked.
"His name is Martin. He can't talk, but he's smart for his age like me and he doesn't have any friends."
"Smart kid. Friends aren't useful, they only lead you to betrayal." He added the last part bitterly and Ellie had a good guess as to who he was thinking of.
***
"Look Sophia, those are my men, they're doing great work." Oswald said later while he sat watching the news. Sophia was doing some sort of art project with the kids and Ellie sat next to the chair Oswald was in, reading.
"Albeit that one's a little stupid, but he gets the job done." He sighed contentedly watching as the assassin from earlier flashed on the screen.
Oswald looked over at Sophia and Ellie looked away, instead glancing at one random girl who claimed she didn't want to do the project and instead was standing awkwardly watching Oswald and Ellie.
"What's wrong?" He asked, and Sophia got uncomfortable.
"It's nothing." She mumbled.
"No, Sophia you are a friend. I want to hear your opinion." Oswald replied, making Ellie raise an eyebrow, seeing as he had just claimed having friends was a bad thing that very morning. Ellie would assume it was an act but she knew Oswald better.
"If you insist..." Sophia sighed. She looked over at the girl who had been awkwardly staring at them. "Ears please." She smiled and the girl covered her ears. She looked at Ellie expectantly, and Ellie glared at her.
"No, I'm not one of your orphans. I'm just as interested to hear what you have to say as Oswald is." She replied, trying to keep her voice pleasant.
"My father never would have aligned with the gcpd... publicly." Sophia added when Oswald opened his mouth. Ellie already knew all to well that Falcone had tried to get him killed using the help of Jim Gordon so that argument was a lost cause.
"Cops are corrupt, unreliable, and incompetent and when they fail their job, you will fail with them." Oswald just gaped at her in astonishment. Ellie looked up at him and sadly, she had to agree with Sophia.
"Thank you for your input. You have shown me very clearly what not to do." He whispered aggressively.
"Don't ask for my opinion if you don't want to hear it." Sophia shot back. Ellie cleared her throat and the two looked at her.
"Sophia has a point. But at the same time, cops hold power in Gotham and if you can manipulate the cops then you can do a lot." She murmured quietly. Oswald glared triumphantly at Sophia who pressed her lips in a thin line.
Sophia looked back over at the girl who had her hands pressed tightly over her ears. "Ok." She whispered, mimicking unplugging her ears, and the girl obeyed.
***
Ellie stayed behind while Oswald angrily stormed off later that night, not abandoning her or out of anger for Sophia, but because his cops had been attacked stupidly by the new criminal, Pyg.
He came back and when Ellie asked what happened he simply shook his head, "turns out the moron that I assumed was efficient is actually extremely incompetent." He spat. Ellie looked awkwardly at her feet and went off to her room.
***
A couple days passed when Oswald and Ellie got news of Ed staying at a fight club in the narrows. Oswald had sent Barbara, Tabitha, and Selina, off to get him alive and sent Bridget to keep an eye on them.
Ellie was watching the kids out in the courtyard while sitting in a window seat and quickly found Martin sitting on a bench by himself. She turned her attention back to her book for only a moment before hearing some yelling. She looked back up to see the bench that previously only occupied Martin was now surrounded by children. One of whom was holding Martin up by his collar. Ellie snapped her book shut, which caught Oswald's attention.
He left the desk he was sitting at and went over to the window. "What's upset you so much?" He asked her, following her line of sight to the group of kids. "So what? Kids get bullied all the time." He asked.
"That's the kid I was talking too a few days ago." She answered. A minute later the larger boy dropped Martin on the ground and he walked off with a bruise under his eye as he sat on a bench just under the window of the room they were in.
Oswald watched him for a minute before opening the window. "Hey, hello? You. Yes you." He said as Martin looked up at him with a match in his hand.
"What are you doing?" Oswald asked. Martin took the notepad and drew on it for a second, showing Oswald a picture of fire. Oswald smirked, "you can't make it that obvious." He informed the boy, "come on." He gestured into the room. Martin looked around uncertainly and got up, going inside the building towards them.
"If you're going to hurt someone, make somebody else do it for you." Oswald informed him when he had reached the office. Martin nodded and took notes.
Later, Ellie and Oswald sat outside in the courtyard, a small distance away from the group of kids, watching Martin. The boy from earlier went up to him and Ellie tensed up. Martin struggled for a moment as the larger kid grabbed Martin's shirt again, but before he was lifted off the ground, a girl walked up and defended him.
The bully and the girl who came to Martin's aid started arguing which drew the group of kids around them, allowing Martin to go over to where Ellie and Oswald sat. Oswald had a satisfied look on his face and Ellie smirked. Oswald was wrong about friends being backstabbers, you just needed to find the right kind of friend, and Ellie believed she had found one.
YOU ARE READING
New Age of Villains - A Gotham Fanfiction
Fanfiction"Ed?" He asked. "Yes?" Ed stood up and rested his hand on the table. "What's in the bag?" Oswald inquired suspiciously. Ed took a breath, "don't yell, and I know what I did was stupid, just let me explain my thought process." He carefully picked the...
