Chapter 103 - My OC Stash #3 - Less Than Zero by Kenchi618 (DCU) (1/2)

-Not a SI but a well written OC DCU fic for InCYGNIficant~ A Gotham student inherits a power suit from his dead parents, he'll end up on the path of crime and taken in by Selina Kyle(Catwoman) as an apprentice. There will be NSFW themes with Null(OCMC) & Rose Wilson (Deathstroke's daughter).

*The author has a lot of good works, if you've already finish reading this one try his other works like ”Extraordinary Times”!

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Sypnosis: It's one thing to enter the world of heroes and villains, it's another thing entirely to find your way back out again. That's a bitter truth to swallow when you want no part of the life to begin with. A hasty decision from a young man with his back against the wall sends him down a path of which there is no return. OC main character.

Rated: M

Words: 384K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/10362076/1/Less-Than-Zero (Kenchi618)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

”Max.”

One could stare for hours and find nothing particularly extraordinary about Max. A fair-toned boy, atop his head sat a dirty-blond mop of hair, and behind tired lids sat unremarkable brown eyes. Covering a moderate, slim teenage build was a black concert t-shirt and blue jeans.

”Max. Pay attention.”

He needed all of the sleep he could get when he could get it. The second school let out he had to run to his job, and that would keep him out until after midnight. The more hours he could work the better, as that meant a little bit longer he could keep his parents' old place. Without it he wouldn't have anywhere to go.

”Max!”

Having his name hissed directly in his ear jolted the young man almost off of his stool and onto the floor had he not caught himself on the edge of the lab desk. He found himself facing an exasperated glare from his lab partner. Understandable, as he had been trying to catch a power nap in the middle of an assignment,

All Max could do was give her an apologetic look. No excuses. Never excuses, ”Sorry Barb,” He said with a hint of an indistinguishable accent.

And he was. Most guys would have been chomping at the bit and wide awake in lab when they found out they would be the lab partner of Barbara Gordon. On the other hand she must have felt like working with him was like dragging along an anchor. It was a shame, she was quite incredible.

Long red hair, stunning green eyes, and a body to go with it all. Unfortunately, Max knew where he stood in regards to that sort of thing going anything past her knowing his name; somewhere in the neighborhood of 'fat chance' and 'snowball's chance in hell'. They definitely weren't friends. Even saying they were acquaintances was a stretch.

Yes, she was gorgeous, but girls like that weren't into guys like him. She had the best grades, was by far the most athletic girl at the school, was the daughter of Gotham's police commissioner, and she was already doing work after classes with Wayne Industries.

He was just the kid of some failed commercial scientists who were no longer amongst the living.

Barbara sighed and shook her head, gesturing to the experiment before them that she had already completed, ”It's fine. It's actually faster without all of the bumbling working together stuff,” She tapped the packet on the lab table that was fully filled out, gesturing for Max to fill in where his name was meant to go, ”…You know, if you tried a little harder who knows what you could do? I've seen your grades. You don't even study.”

Max laughed and gratefully put his name on the page, ”I try plenty hard. Trust me,” He didn't have the time to study. He was hardly able to find the time to do enough homework to keep a decent grade-point average.

Barbara pursed her lips but didn't say anything. Because of 'extracurricular' affairs she was very attentive to what went on around her. She knew full well that Max had lost his parents, the last one over half a year ago, even if he never told anyone or even let it go beyond the people at the school who absolutely had to know that it happened. He simply missed a few days and came back without missing a beat.

But that beat began to slip, because he had to provide for himself. He had no family stateside. He stopped playing sports, and even stopped coming to school every day. He never asked for help or even let anyone know that he was on his own, out of pride or for whatever reason. And no one cared. This was the wrong town for that.

The bell rang and Max stood up before she did, grabbing the packet and putting a hand on her shoulder as he went past to turn it in, ”Thanks, and if there's something I can do later on I owe you one.”

”Just happy to help,” Barbara said lamely as she watched him go. In the end, it wasn't any of her business.

XxX

Well after two in the morning, Max entered his apartment and locked the door behind him, dropping his backpack at the door and flopping face down on the sofa, not even taking his shoes off first and completely ignoring the notice that had been slipped under his door in his absence. His home was a simple one-bedroom apartment. It wasn't exactly in a nice part of town, but it could have been worse.

He dozed off for three hours before waking up and pushing himself up weakly. Two more hours before he had to wake up for school.

With a sigh, Max looked around his dark apartment, still containing this and that from before his father died six months prior. Just thinking about it angered him, but it was a dull anger. The kind that you knew you couldn't do anything about.

His mother and father were both commercial scientists who had made their living when he'd been younger designing and working with teams on technology that S.T.A.R. Labs and other technological powerhouses turned for huge dollars. Then one day that all came to an end, and things grew tough. But they never stopped working. They worked more than they paid attention to him.

And then they both died, one after the other, not too long after one another. But their work had taken them away from him way before death had. He grieved, but not for long. Because there wasn't any room for it. The world didn't care about your excuses.

They left him alone, with no contingency. No contact with anyone that could take him in, or help him. No money to help him get by. No system worked out. It was enough to make him laugh if it wasn't so pathetic.

What was he going to do, become a ward of the state? To hell with that. Adoption? Not a chance. He was sixteen, so it was too late for that to work out for him, even if he did want that sort of thing which he most assuredly did not.

And now the rest of his days would have to be spent eking out what he could with odd jobs? Before he was even old enough to have a fighting chance at a start? No. If he was going to go down, it was going to be because he made his own stupid mistakes to put himself in the hole. Age be damned, he was going to find a way out.

Enough of the nine-to-five crap. Even if he ever got to college, then what? He wouldn't even be able to pay his way through. Not like this.

Jumping up with a grit to his teeth, Max stomped with a purpose and began digging through everything he could get his hands on that he knew belonged to his parents. Scribbled notes, unfinished designs that were nothing more than gibberish to him, and assorted parts that at one point in time might have been used to actually make something, but Max couldn't make heads nor tails of any of it.

Eventually he came across a case that smelled relatively new and looked important. He definitely hadn't seen it before, but then again after they'd moved in and before his dad started getting sick he didn't remember noticing much of anything. All of it revolved around his dad's work, and his work made him angry to think of.

So upset was he, that he barely noticed the fingerprint scanner on the front that he'd brushed his thumb over, causing the case to open with a hiss much to his surprise. Upon opening the case he found a folded-up suit and other little instruments to go along with it.

A onesie? The thought was more than a little irritating as he pulled it out and looked at it. He'd been nervous about finding something or getting kicked out of his home, and he wound up finding a suit.

It was a dark green one-piece bodysuit with porous fibers and padded bands around the joints of the limbs. On the exterior they were as hard as metal, but on the inside they were easily moveable, allowing the wearer to bend. It covered every part of his body up to the second knuckle of his fingers.

”Ugh… kinda tight,” Max grunted, feeling the suit meld to every nook and cranny on his body it could find, even between his fingers and toes, and there was an uncomfortable tingle to it. Sharp, as if his entire body was taking one constant jolt of weak electricity. It was quick to adjust to him though, a snug and comfortable fit, like a second set of skin. He almost felt n_a_k_e_d.

Okay. So a suit. Sweet. Unless it actually did something he was still out of luck.

But as he thought about it, it made him feel… kind of super actually. Smiling at the thought, he bounced on his toes and honestly believed that he'd never felt so light. It was as if his body weight hardly existed. Feeling as if he could go out and win a slam dunk competition he took a hop and promptly drilled his head off of the ceiling.

Falling into a heap on the floor he held his mouth after biting his tongue, ”Ahhhh.”

Pain aside, the important thing was that he hadn't even tried. He'd barely pushed his toes off of the ground.

…What was this suit? He felt great and everything he did felt enhanced. How? It was like something out of a comic strip. Like the first scene of some sort of hero's story.

But the thing about everything was that Max wasn't some sort of hero, and he didn't want a story. He just wanted to live without worries.

And he was young enough to think that things could really be that simple the way he wanted to go about it.

XxX

Over the next few days, he couldn't stop thinking about the future. He'd worked with controlling his reactions in the suit and realized that everything he'd ever picked up from playing sports in the past, every bit of athleticism he'd ever garnered, was bolstered heavily. He reacted quicker. It was great.

Every time he woke up he looked at the suit and went to school and to work, just thinking about the day he'd take a chance and take what he wanted. It would come soon.

When the weekend fell, he started looking around the city for something to try and take first. Something that would get him a bit of change. Enough at least to pay his rent for a good while and keep him fed. Enough to leave that job of his behind.

Even though he knew it was dumb and it was out of his league, his attention wound up being drawn to an open exhibit of jewelry that would only be in town for two days before continuing on a tour of the world.

Walking around and viewing everything inside that could probably be fenced for a fortune put a silly look on his face the entire time he stayed there. Images of sitting in a posh, luxurious penthouse suite, or even a spacious townhouse uptown flew through his head.

As he stood in front of a glass display of a large diamond behind several armed guards and ropes, he felt the presence of someone slightly shorter standing right next to him, apparently observing the diamond as well, until he felt the uncomfortable sensation of being watched and realized that she'd been looking right at him with striking blue eyes.

A full-grown woman who couldn't have been much older than twenty-five if she was even that old, she smirked at him and tucked strands of her long dark hair behind her ear. Her attire was like night and day compared to his when it came to representation of class. She wore a black jacket over a blood red dress and an expensive piece around her neck, as well as black shoes so fine, Max felt he could have pawned everything in his pockets and on his back and still wouldn't have been able to afford a single one of them.

The woman leaned in close, making it clear she was speaking only to him and didn't want anyone else to hear, ”Kid you are making it way too obvious what you're here for.”

”W-What?”

The woman grinned at Max with an expression that he could only compare to that of a cat. One that had knowingly eaten the family's canary. It made him want to stay away actually, her beauty aside. But he couldn't. Because he could tell that she knew something he didn't.

Everything.

”Don't have eyes too big for your stomach,” She said, blue eyes shining in amus_e_m_e_nt as she brushed his face with her fingers, ”You should head on home. Watching a few movies doesn't get you ready for something like that.”

Max's slackened jaw quickly snapped shut and he followed the woman out, trying not to make it look like he was pestering her. Every step he lagged behind her seemed to amuse her even further. She hadn't told him to get lost, so he wanted to find out just what he was missing.

”I wasn't thinking of stealing that you know,” Max said, more of his accent breaking through as he found himself at a loss, ”That's totally not my thing.”

The woman spared him another glance without stopping her stride and let out another laugh, ”Jewels are everyone's thing kid. But for the few that actually want to take them, even less of them know how to,” The two fell into a silence as the smartly dressed woman navigated the streets of Gotham, the kid following her no matter what street she crossed, 'He's not going to try and mug me, so what is it?'

She took him through an alley where no one would see or hear anything and all he did was follow. He didn't try a thing. She didn't even think he had a knife on him.

Eventually she tired of walking with a shadow and hailed a cab, and that was where she found he would not or could not follow. As she got inside and got herself situated she noticed the frown on Max's face as he watched her. It took a bit of curiosity and determination to follow someone he didn't know as far as he did from the open house, but he had limits.

…That was somewhat respectable.

”Do you need a ride home kid?” She eventually said, scooting over to make room for him?

Max looked around, not believing at first that she was talking to him, ”Uh, yes?”

”Well I'm not taking you yet. I'm going to shop for a few things, so carry my bags for me and I'll take you home later.”

Was he really going to say no to that?

XxX

(Later that Afternoon)

Through a quick introductory exchange, Max learned her name; Selina Kyle. And while he didn't catch her occupation, he did pick up on the thinly veiled fact that she knew what she was talking about when it came to taking what she wanted. For hours she humored him, listened to him, and rebutted when he was severely off about something he'd been saying.

It was the most productive day he could remember having in years.

Eventually, arms full of bags containing Selina's high-end purchases, she brought him to her place and didn't simply tell him to get lost after they got to the doorman of her building.

He'd been dead-on when he tried to figure what kind of woman she was. She had a taste for the finer things, and she had them in spades.

She didn't seem to be much of a fan of his though.

”No-no-no. Here's the thing! I don't need to!” Max said, excited at the thought of doing something so… so wrong, and getting away with it, ”I'm not gonna fight, I'm just gonna steal. I just need to be good enough at enough stuff to handle what I need to.”

”Uh-huh,” Selina said, completely unimpressed by him as she sat and listened, ”Well that's the general idea kid. You're not supposed to want to get into trouble. Not unless you're one of those flamboyant crooks that like to go after heroes' neck,” The complete look of distaste on his face put a grin on hers, ”Well it looks like you're not totally in over your head if you know your chances of getting away if you go toe-to-toe with them.”

”I'll do small-time stuff.”

”Won't work. If you keep pulling things off and getting away with it, eventually you'll run into dear old Batman,” Selina said, lazily filing her nails as she tried to persuade the boy that his choice was not the wisest course of action.

She stopped and thought about it for a moment. With the fact that the bulk of Gotham City's more egregious crimes were being committed by true supervillains that intended to cause true and legitimate harm to the general population, the chances that a mere thief would be left alone by Batman existed, especially one that was small potatoes.

Even so…

”…Well with the Justice League calling on him, maybe not Batman himself, but you'll wind up tangling with one of the kids he keeps with him,” Selina amended, sparing Max a partial glance for a moment, ”I'm pretty sure they'll still put you into the ground if you run into them.”

Damn, Max had forgotten all about them. Robin and Batgirl. There was more to this than he'd thought. Sitting on the couch in Selina's penthouse he thought to himself, but nothing seemed to come, ”I'll-. I'll-, ugh. I don't know.”

”Leave Gotham City and go somewhere else,” Selina advised, deciding to throw him a bone. He just looked so pathetic, ”This isn't exactly a good place to get your feet wet. Sharks are more than willing to take them off for you.”

”No money to go anywhere else,” Max reasoned with a mumble, ”That's why I'm doing this. I'll be out on my a_s_s with nothing and nowhere to go in less than two months at best. Then what?”

”Play a sport,” Selina said, trying to coax the young man out of doing something he didn't know the first thing about, ”Get a scholarship or something. Go pro.”

”I tried playing everything I could before my parents died,” Max said, ”That'd take too long even if I had been any good at any of it. I can't do that and stay off of the streets y'know?”

”You really think you don't have any other options do you?”

”If you have one that's realistic, I'm all ears,” Max said earnestly, ”Hit me.”

”Street racer.”

”Where am I getting the car from, how am I paying for upgrades, how am I buying into the races, and what if I lose?”

”Prizefighter. Kids go pro all the time.”

”No money to train,” And if he were that good at martial arts, he would have already tried that path.

”Underground prizefighter.”

”Not enough money to be worth it.”

”True, true,” Selina thought stroking her chin as she had started making a game out of it. Anything but a thief, and anyone but her as the one he'd go to for advice. She wasn't some sort of mentor looking for a sidekick, and he'd wind up becoming nothing but competition otherwise, ”Have you considered doing something… I don't know, legal?”

”Sure,” Max replied, ”But everything legal I can do or might be able to do to fix this takes time,” As in months, or years, ”I don't have any. I've got like 60 days.”

And he'd already said in so many words just what would happen at the end of that time span. Either he'd be getting kicked out of somewhere or something else along those lines would happen. Aside from that, the kid had a point. There wasn't anything legal he could do that would solve his problem fast enough.

She could relate. Things hadn't always been so smooth for her either.

Putting her file aside, Selina stood up and gestured for Max to do the same, ”Hands up,” Immediately, Max did as he was told and slid his body into a ready position for a fight. Not bad posture for a kid, especially something on the spot, ”You're trained?”

”Rec kickboxing classes when you're a little kid don't really count do they?” Max asked before finding himself knocked off of his feet and onto his back from behind, ”Hey!”

”As a base, yes. Practically, no,” Selina said, moving away to a more open place in the penthouse living room, ”Watch out for that coffee table by the way. It's worth more than you are. Now come and hit me.”

Max got up to one knee, but felt a pit in his stomach at having to hit a woman. It wasn't really his thing, ”Uh…”

The look on her face seemed as if this would be more amusing than any sort of threat against her, ”Hit me one time or grab a hold of me somehow, and I will teach you everything I possibly can in four weeks.”

”…”

His reluctance to break a social taboo gave him pause for a moment. Selina gave him no time to think it over before pushing the issue, knowing exactly which point to press to spur him into action.

”It's up to you. You can either suck it up and hit a girl, or you can go and see if whatever's left of the Falcone Family needs any couriers. I'm sure that's an entry-level spot that'll help you break into gooning-,” She was almost impressed with the certainty behind the punch he flew at her with. It missed miserably, but there was no hesitance whatsoever, ”That was good try,” She damn near purred in interest.

Max kept his hands up and slowly shuffled his feet in her direction, having taken his shoes off immediately upon entering her house to keep from besmirching her floors, ”You're gonna start hitting me back aren't you?”

”Not necessarily.”

XxX

(Forty Minutes Later)

She didn't start hitting him back, but that didn't mean she'd let him take lunges at her and refrain from punishing him in some manner. Her b_a_r_e nails were wickedly sharp, and she had no problems with using him like a kitty-cat's scratching post. Aside from that, tripping him face-first into walls and counters, flipping him upside-down and inside-out, forcing him to bump his head on end tables, everything was fair game to deter him.

Selina figured he'd endure as much abuse as one boy could, and then he would quit, but he took more and more.

Max was exhausted and covered in bloody scratches all over his face and arms, including a particularly ugly one going down his face over and under his eye, but in his hand he held Selina's wrist, ”Does that count?” He asked between heavy breaths.

”I didn't think you'd let me gouge your eye out just to grab me,” Selina admitted, a small measure of surprise in her voice. Then again, she also thought he'd quit ten minutes into it.

”You stopped.”

”I didn't want to gouge your eye out! You're just a kid!” She snapped back at him before realizing that he'd fulfilled her condition, ”Well, I guess that's what I get for wanting to let you dangle and have a little fun. I didn't think you had much in you.”

She could have knocked him unconscious whenever she wanted, but for some reason she didn't. If she could do that so easily, one of Batman's kids would massacre him. Even if she let him alone, he'd still give the criminal thing a try, and he'd wind up in jail before he ever got close to anything he wanted.

Max weakly let her go and Selina looked down at her arm to see a red mark on her wrist from his grip. She was getting so soft.

”Four weeks,” The woman eventually said, holding up four fingers, ”Give me four weeks, listen to everything I say, and keep your trap shut. If you ever get caught, you learned all of this from no one. Don't come back here again,” She got a serious nod from Max and waved him off, ”Now go home and clean yourself up. I don't know about you, but I could use a nice long bath.”

XxX

(The Next Day)

”Max, what happened to your face?”

Max had been getting that question all day long, but he winced especially hard when he'd heard it from Barbara of all people. She seemed to be the only one that cared enough to be particularly startled at his appearance.

Seeing as how she had to sit directly next to him for one hour every day, it was probably the reason behind any sort of concerned interest she had. If she was going to be front and center to look at his scratched up mug every day, it was better to get the question out of the way sooner rather than later.

He had a feeling times would come when he would have to throw out quite a few excuses to keep people off of his back in the first place, so it was better to get into the habit before it became a big issue.

”Work is probably gonna be a little rougher for me at night,” Max told her, touching one of the raised scratches on his face, still feeling the soreness on his entire body. Selina had made mincemeat out of him, ”I'll probably be looking something like this for a while.”

”What do you even do?”

”Whatever I need to I guess.”

XxX

(Later That Night)

Max didn't call in to work. The day before he'd left a message that he wasn't coming back. It was all or nothing here and he was going to make sure he gave it his best. If it failed, no one would ever be able to say that he didn't dedicate himself to anything completely. Either this worked out, or nothing would.

If he couldn't even dedicate himself to what he himself had even considered the easy route, what good was he to the world at all? He was nothing as it was. To give up and quit at what he had already considered his last resort, that would make him even worse than a loser. It would make him less than a zero.

Sleep was the most important first and foremost. He didn't know when he'd be coming back, or if he would at all, so it was best to make sure that he was actually rested and prepared to give his best effort once it all began.

It came easier than he had anticipated.

Max figured he would have been a bundle of jittery nerves, unable to close his eyes and relax, but there was a stark sobriety to resigning oneself to a task. Figuring that something had to be done was oftentimes a method of coping with just how big or how real a situation was. Once he started, he wouldn't be able to stop. Not until he'd gotten enough money to guarantee he could try and have a real life.

A relatively peaceful sleep was disturbed by the sound of his front door opening and closing. Strange, because he knew he'd locked it.

Sitting up bleary-eyed he was presented with the sight of the woman meant to instruct him, or at least it was who he figured to be. It was a shapely woman for certain, but her identity was obscured by her choice of attire.

Selina wore knee-high boots and a black, skin-tight, zip-up suit with a goggled cowl on her head, pointed like a pair of cat-ears. The gloves that covered her hands seemed to have built in claws on them. Judging from what she could do with her b_a_r_e nails, Max wasn't eager to see what she could do with those.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it, ”First thing's first. No names. If you have to, find something else to call yourself. Catwoman for example,” Easy enough to remember and it made sense, ”Purrrfect, right?”

”Original. Did you give yourself that one?” Max dryly quipped before leaning back as far as he could, Selina's claws having extended, gently touching the underside of his chin, ”Err… I get it though.”

”I'd love to see you come up with something better Maxie,” Catwoman said before guiding him to his feet and pointing for his back rooms, ”Go get ready. We're wasting time. I've got four weeks to make something serviceable out of you.”

Not necessarily wanting to get scratched so early in the night, Max hastily went into the bedroom and went for the case containing the special suit. He still hadn't learned how it worked, but he knew what it did and how to use it by now. It was simple enough. Put it on, get enhanced.

If Selina thought he'd been a pushover before, wait until she got a load of him in the suit. And that sort of thinking made him pause in his actions.

'No,' Max thought to himself right before he started to change into the suit, 'She's expecting what she got yesterday. Any training she's got ready for me is taking what she already knows into account,' It was the only reason aside from deterring him altogether that Catwoman would have had for fighting with him.

If he came out of the gates blowing her expectations away, it would screw up anything Catwoman had planned for him. Besides, he had a feeling that the suit would enhance whatever he was capable of once he put it on. Wouldn't it be better to let his body suffer through whatever she had set now without the suit only to reap the benefits twice as much afterwards?

It would make everything so much easier, but would easier be better? That was the idea that had started all of this, but the easy way here definitely wasn't the better way. He'd take whatever she had on his feet and stay standing. If he could do that, only then would he wear the suit.

”Are you getting cold feet Maxie?”

Replacing the case where he found it, Max quickly threw on some expendable clothes that he could move around in and a stocking cap to at least try and hide the trait of his hair, just in case. He hustled back to cat burglar lazing on his couch, looking at a stray note left by his parents, bored with waiting, ”Ready.”

Having gotten her attention, he watched her smirk and get back up, giving him a once-over, much like she had in her penthouse the day they'd met, ”No you're not. But you will be.”

First and foremost she'd guided him to the roof and on the way challenged him to keep up with her making as little sound as he could. Sneaking through the halls of an apartment building was simple, and if he couldn't do that he didn't have a chance of ever being a decent thief that didn't take the smash and grab approach. She wasn't going to put any effort into teaching a brute whose first option would be to tear the door off of a safe or kick in a locked door.

Upon reaching the roof, Catwoman looked around at the late night sky with a smile on her lips, ”Okay, first and foremost, learn how to move. You're in decent shape, but you need to be better. So here's what you're going to do. You follow me and keep up. That's all you have to do.”

Max's eyes went wide when he realized that she was going to make him run and jump rooftops with her. Without another word she started, and Max lagged behind, trying to keep up and watch what she did.

”To keep from outright getting you killed, I won't distances I need my whip to cover,” Catwoman said, right before vaulting over an alleyway with a nimble flip, landing on the other side as smooth as silk, ”This is all me.”