RWBY: Batman Begins

Chapter XXXIX

A week had past since the attack on Vale.

Now that the antidote was being produced throughout the kingdom, and work was starting back up. Earle was making his way to the board room, when the secretary approached him.

"The meeting's already started," Jessica said.

Earle raised an eyebrow. "What meeting?"

He hadn't heard anything about a meeting. He stepped into the board room, and he saw the fox faunus, Lucius, passing out papers to the men at the table.

"Fox," he said. "I seem to remember firing you."

"You did," Lucius nodded. "I got another job. Yours."

Earle raised an eyebrow. "On whose authority?"

As the meeting continued, Bruce Wayne was seated in the backseat of the Rolls Royce, looking at the article on his scroll.

"Batman may have made the first article," Alfred said, "but Bruce Wayne got pushed to the eighth."

Bruce smiled as he made his way down the list of articles, and found his.

"DRUNK MILLIONAIRE BURNS DOWN HOUSE"

He frowned, but didn't make any form of complaint. As long as nobody suspected what had actually happened, he supposed he could find a way to get his reputation back.

His scroll vibrated, and he quickly answered it. "Bruce Wayne."

Earle gave no form of greeting, instead got straight to business. "What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?"

"The fact that I'm the owner," Bruce replied.

"What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago."

"And I bought most of the shares," Bruce said, wishing he could see the frown on Earle's face. "Through various charitable foundations and trusts and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that my company's future is secure. Right, Mr. Fox?"

He heard Lucius' voice. "Right you are, Mr. Wayne."

Earle hung up the scroll. He slipped it back into his pocket, and glared at Lucius. The fox faunus simply stared back.

"Didn't you get the memo . . . ?"