Batman: Genesis

Chapter Eight - I'm Batman

Bruce finished his lunch quickly. Alfred had said that he wanted to show him something afterwards. He hurried down the stairs and into the living room of Wayne Manor. Alfred was grinning at him. He held a remote in his hand. He pressed it, which moved the fireplace. Bruce stepped into the cave. On the back wall, behind glass, a suit sat.

"No way!" Bruce said as he stared. The suit was now gray with the black symbol of a bat engraved in it. A yellow belt separated the chest armor from the gray leg armor. A black cape draped around the shoulders of the suit. He also had a new helmet. It was the same black bulletproof material, but it now had what looked like ears poking up.

"Alfred, this is great!" Bruce exclaimed, not taking his eyes off the suit.

"Why, thank you, Master Bruce," Alfred replied, leaning proudly against the cave wall.

"How did you do this so quickly?" Bruce asked.

"I started on it a while back, but decided to go with the black suit instead," Alfred said. "So when I saw what a poor reaction you were getting from those chaps, it seemed like the other suit would be a better fit."

"Wow," Bruce said, still admiring the suit. "Tonight will be fun."

--

[Jim]

"Well, she was wearing all black, with a strap around the back of her head." Harvey described.

Jim and Harvey were sitting at a metal table in one of the small GCPD rooms. They were describing the girl who had robbed the store to a sketch artist. The girl had taken out all the security cameras, but with the hood that she had on, facial recognition wouldn't have picked it up anyway.

"Thank you," the sketch artist said when he was finished drawing. "We will alert you if we find any one who resembles this person.

The sketch artist left the room. Jim and Harvey followed. As the sketch artist walked out of the GCPD, a man in his early twenties entered.

"Jim Gordon?" Bruce called as he walked in.

"Right here," Jim said, walking up to meet Bruce with Harvey trailing behind.

"Have you found anything else regarding the case?" Bruce asked, looking at the file in Jim's hand.

"No, Bruce, we're currently occupied with something else," Jim said. "If we find anything we'll give you a call."

Bruce took the file out of Jim's hand.

"Young woman dressed in all black?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, but-" Jim started.

"Stole two half gallons of milk?" Bruce continued, interrupting Jim.

"Aye, boy!" Harvey said, taking back the file. "This is GCPD business. You run on home, now."

Harvey led Jim away from Bruce and back to their desk.

"Cat..." Bruce muttered.

--

[Bruce]

"Going back to the witness's houses, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked.

Night had fallen. Bruce was trying on his new suit as Alfred fired up his monitors.

"Not tonight, Alfred. I have another target," Bruce said. "Wow, this suit is great!"

Bruce examined his new suit for a few minutes, then threw Alfred a chip.

"This will give us the location of Cat," Bruce said, walking and standing behind Alfred.

"The lady that stole your watch?" Alfred asked, plugging the chip into the computer.

"She wasn't the only talented person there," Bruce grinned, watching as a red dot popped up on the monitor.

"She's in a building on crime street. But why are you tracking her?" Alfred asked.

"She's taking up the GCPD's time. If I turn her in, Jim Gordon can focus on the murder," Bruce explained. "Luckily, I thought to put a tracking device on her since she came off as a suspicious person."

"Well, good luck out there, Master Bruce," Alfred said.

Bruce put on his helmet and headed out of the cave.

--

Bruce stood on top of a glass-domed building in his suit, watching as four men in black stood inside, whispering to each other. On the other side of the room, Cat walked in. Of course she would be interacting with those criminals. He waited for Cat to get to the other side of the room. He needed to get them all together to throw in a flash grenade that sat in his yellow belt. After they were hit with the concussion, taking them out would be easy. Then he could arrest them and the GCPD would be back on track, finding out who killed his co-worker, who was a good friend of his and one of the few people at Wayne Enterprises that he felt like he could truly trust.

Cat started moving slowly as she approached the men who were engrossed in their conversation on the best strategy to rob the building. To Bruce's surprise, when she got to them, she kicked the first burglar in the face. He fell to the floor with a thud.

There was a shout as the other burglars realized what was happening. Bruce watched, shocked, as Cat picked off the burglars one by one until all four were on the floor. Bruce dropped down onto the floor in front of Cat. Cat stepped back, indicating that Bruce's suit was doing it's job.

"Why'd you stop them?" Bruce asked, looking around at the criminals.

"This is Crime Street," she explained. "Things like this happen all the time. I try to stop them. The people here-, well let's just say they're defenseless. I try to do everything I can to help them."

Bruce nodded thoughtfully.

"But why are you here?" Cat asked squinting her eyes, as if trying to figure out who hid behind the mask.

"To arrest you..." Bruce admitted.

"For what?" Cat asked incredulously. "Stopping a robbery?"

"For robbing the grocery and jewelry stores," Bruce corrected, stepping forward.

This time Cat did not back away.

"Look, the people of Crime Street are poor!" Cat explained. "I'm only trying to help them out."

"You were robbing for them?" Bruce asked, seeing Cat in a new light. "But what about all the milk?"

Cat smiled guiltily, "You sound like a nice guy. Help me fight the crime of Crime Street. We can rid it completely of all robberies! Together."

"Fine. I'll help out when I can," Bruce agreed.

One of the criminals sat up and moaned. Bruce swiftly kicked him in the face, sending him back into the floor. Cat smiled.

"What's your name?" she asked.

Bruce thought for a second.

"Batman."

"Batman... I like it. I'm Catwoman."