Wayne Manor Grounds - 2:00 AM
The estate was a fortress.
Jean-Paul had turned the pristine grounds into a kill box. Motion sensors swept the lawn. Automated turret guns were mounted on the gargoyles. The windows were shuttered with titanium blast shields.
In the treeline, five hundred yards away, the "Knights" gathered.
Nightwing (Dick Grayson) adjusted his escrima sticks.
Red Robin (Tim Drake) checked his holographic wrist computer.
Catwoman (Selina Kyle) sharpened her claws, looking bored.
Sebastian (Me) stood holding a thermal flask of coffee.
And Bruce Wayne.
He wasn't wearing a heavy armored suit. He wasn't wearing the cape. He wore a sleek, matte-black tactical bodysuit with no emblem. He didn't need the symbol yet. He had to earn it back.
"The perimeter is tight," Tim whispered. "Thermal sensors. Pressure plates. If we step on the grass, the turrets will turn us into Swiss cheese."
"Jean-Paul relies on the System," Bruce said calmly. "The System is logical. It predicts attacks from the ground and air."
"So how do we get in?" Selina asked, purring. "I'm good, darling, but I can't dodge a vulcan cannon."
"We give the System a target it can't ignore," Bruce looked at Dick. "Nightwing. Red Robin. You take the front gate. Make noise. Lots of it."
Dick grinned. "We can do noise."
"Catwoman. Sebastian. You disable the external power coupling on the East Wing. That cuts the sensors."
"And you?" Selina asked.
Bruce looked toward the old, overgrown gardens. Toward a patch of dense briars that hadn't been touched in twenty years.
"I'm going to the root," Bruce said.
The Distraction
BOOM.
The front gates of Wayne Manor exploded inward.
The Batmobile (remote piloted by Tim) roared up the driveway, firing non-lethal suppression rounds at the turrets.
Inside the Cave, Azrael sat on the throne. The System screamed in his head.
INTRUSION DETECTED. SECTOR 1. MULTIPLE HOSTILES.
"They have returned," Jean-Paul's synthesized voice hissed. " The unfaithful."
He stood up. The massive, red-and-gold mechanical suit whirred. The shuriken launchers cycled.
"Deploy countermeasures. Lethal force authorized."
On the lawn, hell broke loose. Turrets spun and fired. Nightwing and Robin moved like acrobats, dodging the tracers, using the Batmobile as cover.
"He's actually shooting at us!" Dick yelled, flipping over a stream of bullets. "He's lost it!"
"Keep him focused on you!" Tim shouted, hacking a turret to fire at a tree instead.
The Infiltration
While the war raged at the front, Bruce pushed aside the dead vines in the garden.
He found it. The old wooden boards, rotted and covered in moss.
The Well.
He pried the boards loose. The smell of damp earth and guano drifted up.
"It has been a long time," I said, appearing beside him after disabling the power coupling with Miss Kyle.
"It has," Bruce said.
"Do you require a rope, Sir?"
"No," Bruce said. "I fell once. This time, I climb down."
He slipped into the darkness.
He descended the slick stone walls. The sounds of the battle above faded, replaced by the dripping of water and the rustle of leather wings.
Thousands of bats slept here. They sensed him. They didn't fly away. They recognized the scent.
Bruce reached the bottom. He waded through the waist-deep water, pushing through a narrow fissure in the rock.
He emerged into the sub-basement of the Batcave.
He climbed the metal grating, moving silently past the trophy room, past the armory.
He reached the main platform.
Azrael was standing at the console, watching the screens, laughing maniacally as he fired defensive missiles at Nightwing outside.
"Burn!" Azrael shouted. "Burn the heretics!"
Bruce walked out of the shadows.
"Jean-Paul."
The voice was quiet, but it cut through the noise of the cave like a razor.
Azrael froze. The helmet turned slowly.
"You..." Azrael whispered. "You are broken. I broke you."
"Bane broke my back," Bruce said, stepping into the light. "You broke my trust."
"I saved this city!" Azrael screamed, turning fully. The suit towered over Bruce. It was seven feet of metal and rage. "I did what you couldn't! I purged the evil! I am the Batman!"
"No," Bruce said. He didn't take a fighting stance. He just stood there, hands at his sides.
"You're just a man in a suit."
Bruce pointed to the exit.
"Take it off. And get out of my house."
The Duel
"THE SYSTEM DEMANDS YOUR ELIMINATION!"
Azrael raised his gauntlet. The shuriken launcher spun.
THWIP. THWIP. THWIP.
Razor-sharp projectiles flew at Bruce.
Bruce didn't block. He didn't use a gadget. He moved.
He moved with the fluid, unnatural speed of Lady Shiva. He swayed millimetres to the left, then the right. The shurikens embedded themselves in the wall behind him.
"Impossible!" Azrael roared.
He activated the flamethrower.
FWOOSH.
Bruce slid under the flame jet, closing the distance.
Azrael swung a massive, hydraulic fist.
Bruce caught the wrist. Not with strength—he couldn't overpower the hydraulics. He used leverage. He twisted his hips and redirected the force.
Azrael stumbled forward, his own momentum betraying him.
Bruce struck.
He didn't punch the armor. He punched the joints.
CRACK. (Elbow servo).
CRUNCH. (Knee actuator).
Bruce moved like a ghost, dismantling the suit piece by piece. He tore out the hydraulic cabling with his bare hands. He jammed a batarang into the ammo feed of the launcher.
"You rely on the machine," Bruce whispered, dodging a clumsy swing. "You forgot the man inside."
"I AM THE BATMAN!" Azrael screamed, firing his blinding chest light.
Bruce shielded his eyes with his forearm. He remembered the darkness of the Well. He didn't need eyes to see.
He sensed the heat of the suit. He sensed the vibration of the engine.
Bruce leaped. He kicked Jean-Paul square in the chest plate.
The armor held, but the man inside couldn't take the impact. Jean-Paul flew backward, crashing into the Batcomputer. Sparks showered down.
Azrael tried to stand. The suit was sparking, smoking, leaking fluid.
"The System..." Jean-Paul babbled, his helmet cracking open. "The System says... kill..."
Bruce stood over him. He picked up the cowl—the one Azrael had discarded. The original cowl.
Bruce put it on.
The shadow fell over Jean-Paul.
"The System is offline," Batman said.
He reached down and ripped the chest plate off Azrael's suit, exposing the man underneath. Jean-Paul looked up, eyes wide, terrified, seeing the true Dark Knight for the first time.
"You..." Jean-Paul whimpered. "You are... real."
"I'm real," Batman growled. "And I'm back."
Jean-Paul slumped, unconscious.
The Aftermath
The alarms stopped.
I walked down the stairs, followed by Nightwing, Tim, and Selina. They looked disheveled, covered in soot, but alive.
They saw the defeated mechanical monster. They saw Bruce, standing in the center of the cave, wearing the cowl.
"He did it," Tim breathed.
Bruce turned to us. He looked at the cave. It was a mess. Weapons everywhere. Trophies broken.
"Sebastian," Batman said.
"Sir?"
"Clean this up."
I smiled. A genuine, warm smile.
"With pleasure, Sir."
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