When Damian found out about the exchange Black Mask was about to make with a Haitian human trafficking ring, he set out to bring the gang down all by himself. His father would have surely liked him to take Dick or Cassandra, or someone from the Teen Titans along. But Damian was not going to wait around for reinforcements to arrive. The 12 year old was going to take down the superstitious and cowardly lot himself if he had to. Justice would not have to wait. He arrived at the decrepit old building at the East End where dozens of small children were being held captive, to be sold off as if they were objects.
He reached the building as the transaction was being made, and decided that a sudden and brutal attack would be best. He broke in through one of the windows and began landing kicks and punches left and right. However, he miscalculated just how many men would be present there. Nor did he plan an exit strategy.
In moments he was surrounded and struggling to fight off attacks. Just then, the lights went out. The sound of countless small objects hitting the ground was heard, followed by a low hissing sound. Damian realized they were gas bombs. Before he could react, Damian felt someone place a gas mask over his face and in a flash, he was carried out the window and onto the building's roof.
The crack of the whip told him it was Selina Kyle aka Catwoman.
"I had it under control." He told her, a bit annoyed.
"Is that so?" She asked nonchalantly, "well, the way that Dave Batista look alike had a hold of your neck suggested otherwise."
Damian didn't get a chance to answer. The place was surrounded by cops, and semi-conscious bodies of the thugs were being carried out. Catwoman had already tipped them off about the children being held there. Damian and Selina watched as Detective Renè Montoya gave the order to break down the doors to the basement. Soon, children no older than 6 or 7 years were brought out.
"Come on." Selina said, "Montoya will handle it from here. We should get home before your dad does." As Damian sat behind Selina on her bike, he reflected on what she had just done, and realized that she was right. He had acted impulsively. But of course, he would never admit it.
Damian did get chastised by his father, Bruce Wayne later on. Mostly about going into a potentially life threatening situation alone. But as was the case with most of Batman's scoldings, there was that underlying hint of affection and pride. He was proud that his son felt the need to jump in and save those innocent children, without sparing a though for his own safety.
The next day, Damian found Selina in the Batcave, going over the files of the kids who had been rescued. He stood next to her and read some of them. He noticed that many of them were runaways. He wondered out loud why any kid that age would run away from home.
"Surely being at home with your family is better that being on the streets" he remarked.
"Not always Damian. Often when your home life becomes unbearable, you just want to get out of there. Anything to getaway from abusive parents." Selina told him.
"But still, how bad can home be? And if the parents are abusive, why not tell someone? Like a neighbour or a teacher."
"Damian you'd be surprised how many people turn a blind eye to abuse. As long as it doesn't affect them, they don't care."
"How can you say for sure?"
"Well.... I was once a runaway myself."
This surprised Damian a bit. His father hadn't really told him much about Selina's past and she had only been a part of his life for a few months.
"You were? How old were you?"
Selina thought for a second and replied "The first time I ran away? I think....eight. the cops got a hold of me and brought me back to my family. Brian, that was my "father" was NOT happy. The second time, was when both my parents were dead. I was around eleven."
Damian stood there silently for some time, processing what Selina had just said. He then asked "but why did you have to go to the streets? Weren't there any relatives you could have gone to?"
"Nope. You see, Brian was a violent drunk and any relatives they had just cut us out of their lives. One time, when Brian delivered a beating to our mom, I did try to reach out to a distant aunt. I told her what had happened and asked if my mom, my sister and I could live with her for a few days. But she told me she didn't want "filth" in her home and hung up. I realized then that no one was going to help us."
"That's disgusting!" Damian exclaimed. "They should have at least called the cops. And your mom, why didn't she leave that bastard?"
"Abuse victims don't always know how to leave Damian. They often end up blaming themselves. In my mom's case it drove her to alcoholism and finally suicide."
"And what happened to your father?"
"He did us a favour and drank himself to death. I just called 911 and walked out the door" Selina told him, trying to smile.
Damian was caught between anger and sadness. "Someone should have helped you. Someone should have done SOMETHING" , he muttered.
Selina tried to lighten the mood and said "its just too bad that there was no Damian Wayne to come to my rescue!"
This got Damian to smile a bit.
"Are...are you ok now?" He asked hesitantly.
"Yes, Darling. I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me. In fact you shouldn't be worrying about anything at all. You have the rest of your life for that."
Damian just sat next to Selina silently and read the files with her, occasionally commenting on them. But his mind kept on replaying what Selina had told him. He kept wondering just how difficult her life must have been and was so angry over what she had been put through. She didn't deserve that. Selina Kyle truly was a brave woman.
After this Damian's interactions with Selina became friendlier than before. He wasn't the kind to suddenly be all buddy buddy with her, but he made it a point to be more respectful.
Damian had often seen Selina practicing with her whip. He would watch her crack her whip at a row of lit candles, and somehow putting out only one at a time. It was awe inspiring. He was truly blown away by her skill when the Bat family took on the Court of Owls and their Talons. Damian watched as Catwoman wielded her whip like a bolt of lightning. He wondered what it felt like.
Later that night as the family was in the cave tending to each other's wounds, talking and laughing, Selina noticed that Damian kept looking at her whip. She took it off and tossed it to him.
"Go ahead. Give it a whirl"
And Damian did. He cracked it at an empty tumbler but missed it by only a few inches.
"Not bad" Selina said. "Do you wanna learn?"
"Yes" Damian said, loving the way the whip felt in his hands and how it seemed to have a life of it's own.
His lessons began the very next day. Every day, just before dinner Damian and Selina would practice for about 45 minutes in a secluded part of the Manor. Bruce had spotted them but remained at a distance. He felt that it was important for Damian to have this one on one time with Selina. She did tell Bruce all about his progress. Sometimes, on weekends Selina would take Damian to the farm she owned just outside of Gotham and they'd train for a couple of hours. Selina taught him all her tricks and told him all of the whip's secrets. Damian was a natural and learned very quickly. He really enjoyed his sessions with Selina and loved cracking the whip as much as he loved wielding a sword. These sessions also allowed them to bond and he found that he began to like Selina a lot. She was intelligent, funny and very easy going. She made him laugh and he often discussed things with her that he couldn't with his father. She taught him a lot about finding a balance between his goal to fight crime and doing things that brought him joy. More importantly, she made sure he knew he didn't have to live up to anyone's expectations, except his own.
Another area where the two of them bonded was their love for animals. They would rescue stray animals and find homes for them. At times that home turned out to be Wayne Manor. Not that it was a problem. They would either convince Bruce, usually with Selina flashing him a smile. Or they simply told him that the newest furry addition to the family had always lived in the Manor with them, and Bruce had just been too busy to notice.
Selina also shared with Damian her expertise on training animals and calming them down. This too turned out to be something at which Damian was a natural.
Whips and new furry friends became the foundation of Damian and Selina's relationship. She had brought him his own whip for his birthday and it became a regular part of his arsenal. Batman always felt a mixture of pride and inexplicable happiness when he saw Damian expertly wielding his whip and then wrapping it around his waist just like Catwoman. Something about his son using his love's weapon of choice just felt so right. And if he came to think of it, Damian was more like Selina than anyone else in the family. It seemed rather fitting.
Damian's mother's reaction to seeing a whip in his hands was very different.
During a battle with Bane's army of thugs, Damian and Talia faught together. Both with swords. But as mother and son began to gain the upper hand, Damian ditched his lethal weapon for the non lethal one. He obviously only wanted to incapacitate and not kill.
To Talia, seeing her son drop the sword and replace it with the whip, with Catwoman's weapon, seemed symbolic. And for a while it filled her with dread. What if she too was replaced it her son's heart? When they were alone in her private jet, Talia grabbed Damian's whip and demanded to know since when he had been using it.
"For about two years now." He told her the truth.
"You never mentioned it."
"It never came up. "
"Why Damian? Why would you replace your family's weapon. Our weapon with this?" Talia asked somewhat angrily.
"Mother, I've started using the whip because I enjoy it, and because its non lethal. I do not kill."
"I see. First your father drives you away from your destiny, now his mistress is making you forget your family's legacy."
"She's not his mistress mother." Damian did not like the tone Talia had taken when talking about Selina. He did not take kindly to anyone disrespecting Selina, a new development in his life that he did not immediately notice.
"He loves her and she makes him happy. And I'll be the judge of which weapon I'm going to use. I don't need you or Ra's making that decision for me"
"They've neutered you. You were destined to rule, to be a warrior King but they reduced you to being a pawn on this ridiculous quest for "justice". What's even more pathetic is that you don't even realize it."
Damian was in no mood to argue with her and walked away. For the remainder of the flight back to Gotham, he didn't speak to her.
At home, both his father and Selina noticed that Damian looked a bit sad. It was Selina, during their training sessions who asked him what had happened. Damian told her all about what his mother had said.
Selina sat him down and spoke to him.
"Look Damian, if Talia wanted you to just stick to whatever destiny Ra's had decided for you, she wouldn't have allowed you to come here and live with your father. Hell, she could have never told you about him, or him about you. But she did. She let you leave because she wants you to be happy. To find your own way in life. Her anger stems from the fact that she's afraid of being replaced in your life. She's not being controlling, she's just afraid. You are all she has."
"I... I know all that." Damian said quietly.
"She's leaving Gotham today, Damian. Go see her. She needs assurance that you still love her. And you need to give it to her. The world she had to live in is not the greatest. Don't let her leave with a weight on her heart. She's your mother. Go be a good son to her."
Selina drove Damian to the area where Talia's jet was on the verge of taking off. Damian went in and approached Talia.
"Mother, I just came to say goodbye. And I'm sorry for raising my voice that day."
Talia's expression softened. She hugged him and told him "dont worry about it. I was hoping you'd come. I have presents for you, I thought I'd have to send them to the Wayne Manor."
As her servants began filing Selina's car with boxes, Talia and Damian sat in her private cabin and talked about his school, his friends, the Titans and everything else. Talia asked if he was happy and he assured her he was.
"I'll be fine mother. Don't worry. And dont worry about my sword either. I'm not going to stop practicing it just because I've picked up the whip." He said holding her hand, "I can love both mother. The sword and the whip. One is not going to replace the other. The sword is a part of who I am and the whip makes me feel alive."
Talia knew what her son meant. She smiled lovingly and kissed his forehead.
"Its ok, my beloved. You do what you think is best. Whatever makes you happy"
Damian said goodbye to his mother and walked back to Selina's car, feeling better than he had in days. He found the car full of boxes and bags and had to make room to sit down.
"So" Selina asked "straight to the Manor or that puppy mill Steph told us about? There's supposed to be over 200 dogs there in need of good homes and the asshole who runs it, in need of a good thrashing."
"Puppy mill. Definitely puppy mill." Damian said with a confident smile as he and Selina drove off to engage in their favourite activity.
[The picture is from the comic book Prelude to the Wedding]