Then Be Batman [DC SI]

[Nugar]

Quick note: This story does include some Gamer style elements. Outside of the first two chapters, posted here, they are minimal. They also have an in universe source. This is not a LitRPG.

The Gamer elements are an in universe thing provided by Batman's biggest fan as a way of allowing a regular guy the ability to sort of fill a set of bat-themed boots, because what other cheat lets you get great at everything? Of course, I think most people know that, whatever powers you might have, you can't really be as paranoid, as prepared, as GOOD as Batman. But sometimes, you gotta try.

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Always Be Yourself, Unless You Can Be Batman.

Then Be Batman.

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Observe.

Ethan Neilson: petty mugger. An occasional drug user, he feels pride in not falling into the cycle of abuse and debt that is common. Ethan works as a forklift operator at a warehouse that supplies chain convenience stores, but supplements his income with opportunistic mugging, breaking and entering, and petty theft. Currently armed with a stolen H&I snubnose .32 revolver in >average< condition.

I turned my attention to the other man.

Stewart McNally: auto mechanic. Coming home late, having stopped for drinks at a bar after work. Currently moderately intoxicated. Not married or in a relationship.

I dropped the skill. If I'd continued observing, I could have gotten more and more details, but the scene was pretty straightforward.

Mister McNally was headed home, only to be ordered at gunpoint into a side alley between two four storey apartment buildings. The mugging was more on impulse than anything really planned, as Neilson had noticed they were the only two on the street.

Unfortunately for Neilson, and fortunately for McNally, I had been sitting on the roof of a building up the street when it went down, and had quickly roofhopped to one of the buildings making the alley.

With a soft fwoosh of air past my stiffened cape, I landed quietly, though not soundlessly, behind the would-be mugger.

+50 Falling XP. +50 Landing XP. +50 Move Silently XP.

He whirled, but even with my sort of paltry Combat skill level, it was perfectly simple to grab his gun in one gauntleted hand, keeping it pointed away from anything vulnerable, and to grab the side of his neck in my other.

Strength is actually my worst body stat, but he was like a squirming child in my grip. A hard pinch to the nerve junction in his neck made him gasp and go weak, and my recently gained combat perk, Weapon Breaker, guided me in to squeeze the old revolver in just the right way so that with a crisp snap, the pawl and retaining pin broke, popping the cylinder out to the side, where more pressure warped the hinge to make it doubly useless. It would take more money than the gun was worth to fix it, now.

The gun fell from nerveless fingers and clattered to the alley pavement.

+150 Combat XP.

I ignored McNally as I zip-cuffed the mugger. The mechanic had been caught in the middle of fishing out his wallet, and kind of awkwardly stood there holding it while the events unfurled.

Once the mugger was properly trussed up, I lightly kicked the back of his knees and sat him roughly on the ground at the entrance to the alleyway. I glanced back at the almost victim. I hadn't finished the lenses yet, so he was actually able to meet my eyes, though I doubt he could see them clearly.

"You should call the cops to come get him," I growled in my best voice.

"Wha- Who are you?" he spluttered.

I fired my grapple gun up over the edge of the building, then retracted the line until I felt the hook catch.

"I'm Batman."

Then I reeled in at maximum speed, yanking myself into the night. Except I was a body length off the ground when I felt whatever I had hooked, probably an air conditioner, give way, and I dropped four feet with a grunted curse before the grapple hooked something else, probably the lip of the building, and I actually went up the side of the building.

+360 60 Batman XP.

Fuck!


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It was pretty late at night, and I was patrolling a mix of slums, and the slightly higher end commercial districts that border the slums. So far, it's been fairly quiet, crime wise. I broke into an apartment where I heard a violent domestic argument, dislocated the shoulder of and punched a guy unconscious, and gave the woman a card with the address of a women's shelter I've been supporting. I've also stopped one other mugging, though it was less direct, as the mugger gave up and scampered as soon as he realized he and his victim weren't alone on the street. Cowardly, but smart.

Lastly, I called the cops on, and then scared the shit out of, three guys breaking into an unoccupied apartment through the window. That was pretty fun. I killed the lights, targeted them one by one, and gave them a few bruises while keeping them too disoriented to figure out what was going on. Then I used a couple of glow sticks to let them see me, and ended up chasing them back outside. They got away before the cops got there, no real surprise there, because I didn't bother catching and tying them up.

No real point with petty, nonviolent crime, given the current state of Gotham.

No, this is my first night out. It's more about being seen a few times, and trying to get the hang of this 'Batman' shit.

Seriously, grapple guns, how the fuck do other Batmans always manage to hook something solid.

Oh, anyway. Hi. I'm Batman.

The worst Batman in the multiverse.

I was originally just a rando from a baseline, non-superhero world. One where DC Comics and Marvel Comics and Image Comics and various manga and all sorts of other entertainment media existed. You've heard of the 'isekai' concept, I'm sure. That's basically what happened.

In this world, a young Bruce Wayne, having finished his bachelors in Business at the age of 21, as well as various training trips around the world, fucking died.

Plane crash over the Atlantic. No way to Batman his way out of it.

But it was because of higher being interference. A personage as important as Batman isn't supposed to die from random bullshit. So another higher power interfered. I don't have the whole story, but apparently there was some sort of compromise agreement. Bruce Wayne stays dead, but gets revived with the mind of some shmuck. The rando asshole, me, has none of the qualities that would make a Batman, but I was allowed to have some meta knowledge.

Meta knowledge isn't enough to make a Batman out of a random asshole.

I was aware of the shit sandwich from the instant I was served. I would make a terrible Batman. Like, 50s TV show Batman is at an unattainable height for me. Given that Gotham, and also the world, and sometimes the universe itself needs Batman to play his part in saving it, I was not particularly happy about being set up to fail.

Obviously, I was still gonna try, because you don't turn down a 'get out of death free' card, but still.

Fortunately, I DID have some meta knowledge, and Batman has his fans. I screamed for help.

I got answered. We brainstormed the problem. And so I got a chance. The only thing I could think of that could turn a loser into an omnidisciplinary expert in literally everyfuckingthing.

If you have the patience to GRIND.


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"Bat Mite, how do other Batmans do it?" I asked, sitting on the roof of another building two blocks away, rubbing my shoulder. It had been wrenched a bit when I suddenly dropped and caught.

A tiny little man dressed in his own grey and black batman outfit popped into being on the roof beside me. Bat Mite is a fifth dimensional, generally multiversal being, and one of Batman's biggest fans. Kind of like Mister Mxyzptlk is for Superman, except not an asshole. Mxyzptlk seems to create problems for Superman for entertainment, and also probably to teach him flexibility, since Mxy is one of the few things Superman can't physically fight. Bat Mite did occasionally cause problems for Batman, but it was more in a 'I just want to see him win!' sort of way. The little dude is alright.

"The bat-grapple?" he asked.

"Yeah, you saw it slip, right? I can aim it with precision, but even concrete breaks sometimes. I aimed over the top of the building because that building was made of brick, and that low wall around the edge probably has low lateral strength."

Thank you, Construction skill. Need to get you back up to a better level.

Bat Mite scratched his chin thoughtfully, which was interesting to see. His avatar does look kinda cartoony.

"Hmm, I never noticed anything particularly unusual about it. The other Batfamily members all learned to do it, too. You may just not have enough skill in it." He looked around at all the rows of low buildings. "Also, they do tend to use it more around skyscrapers than townhouses and apartment blocks."

I nodded thoughtfully.

Bat Mite continued. "I'll see if I can work up a perk for it. Probably something either in the Gadget Use skill, or in the Batman stat. You're at a fifteen for Gadget Use, and you get a perk at 20, so that might be the fastest. Bu-ut, you're at a twelve for your Batman stat, and you've finally been getting experience for it again now that you're going out on patrol. It's only three points away instead of five, but I still bet you'll hit 20 in Gadget use before you get fifteen in Batman."

"Stats are more powerful than skills, but slower to level," I agreed. "Hey, unlike a lot of other gadgeteer heroes I've read about, Batman's stuff never fails him unless it's damaged by an enemy. Think there could be a perk where Bat-gadgets always work as intended, unless attacked? There's got to be some reason they always have 'bat' icons and 'bat' names."

He nodded. "Oh, definitely. That's a good one. But that's too powerful for a 5x stat perk."

Stats got perks every five levels, but generally speaking, the perks I got for multiples of five in my stats were less powerful than the ones at multiples of ten. Skills only got perks every 20 levels.

"But that's probably a bit too powerful for a perk for a single skill like Gadget Use, too. I think you'd need to combine some skills and relevel to get a perk like that. And then, level 10 would be the earliest you could get it."

An exception to the rule that skills got perks every 20 levels was if you leveled a bunch of related skills up to 20, then combined them, which was an option that popped up sometimes. I'd done it twice so far, with a bunch of martial arts skills and some other things like tactics, strategy, and logistics combining to form the Combat skill. I did it again with things like carpentry, bricklaying, welding, and other stuff combining to make the Construction skill. The new skill started at zero, which sucked. However, it got perks every five levels, like stats, and the skill was much more powerful than the previous ones, even in combination, because levels in it leveled up everything that could have gone into it, not just the skills that actually did.

So while I've only managed to get my Combat skill back up to a nine, that's a nine in everything that could be considered Combat. From exotic martial arts only known by a single user, to army leadership and tactics, to technical weapons. I could aim and fire a mad scientists bespoke space laser as well as I could use pressure point strikes as well as I could beat someone's ass with a yo-yo. Also I already got a perk from it, the Weapon Breaker perk that I used on that gun. For a 5x perk that's a pretty good one.

A nine wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. A 5 was 'amateur but knows how to do it', a 10 was 'basic professional', a 15 was 'skilled, probably the best in the area', a 20 was 'world class', and a 25 was 'basic human peak'. However, given that this is a superhero universe, it's not that difficult for someone to elevate themselves above basic human. Your average mad scientist villain was probably in the 30s for whatever weird gadget they based their persona around.

It still sucked to go from a 20 in several martial arts to a 0, even if the long term gains were worth it. I instinctually tucked my thumb into my fist on my first punch against a punching bag. I'd have broken it if I hadn't flailed and just kind of patted the bag.

So if I did want to combine my skills, I was looking at the time to level up several to at least 20. Inventor and Engineer were already over 20, but in addition to Gadget User, I probably also needed things like the other related hard sciences. Physics, Chemistry, Programming, maybe more, who were mostly in their teens. Then I'd be literally incompetent at using my gear until I had trained the skill back up.

It was going to be a hard choice when I got those opportunities in the future.

"You're also forgetting that you can upgrade the grapple," Bat Mite reminded me. "The launcher is good, but your grapple hook is kind of basic. Add some servos and some joints so that instead of just passively hooking, it actually grabs its target."

Hmm. Yeah. That's a good idea, actually.

"Maybe a van der Waals pad, too. Get some grip on slicker surfaces," I mused.

"You need to level up your chemistry and physics more for those, but I approve."

I pulled out a small plastic bottle of water from a belt pouch and quickly drained it before collapsing the bottle and putting it back. Roof hopping is thirsty work.

Honestly, I had my doubts about this whole 'patrol' thing. This is my first night out. The first active Batman things I've done since I've been in this world.

And generally speaking, vigilante justice is kinda hokey. I've probably spent somewhere around 25 million of the Wayne fortune preparing for this.

It's not like that's all I've done. I've made arrangements to support some more charities and organizations dedicated to getting people back on their feet, to the tune of probably twice what I've spent on gear and training.

But the problem with Gotham, at least, the big, actually largely fixable problem with the city, this early in the timeline, is the combination of police corruption and organized crime. Really, it's just straight up organized crime. The cops just happen to both be criminals and organized, and largely on the take from other gangs.

Actual mafia crime families dominate the city while smaller, weaker, street level gangs cause most of the direct misery. The fucking Falcones don't sell drugs on the street, they just import it, then sell to a host of large and small groups. Gotham's minority percentage, at least by the standards of 'minority' I'm used to, meaning black or foreign, is fairly low, so even a lot of the street gangs are like, Irish or something.

I know the Irish are foreign and have experienced quite a bit of discrimination. For that matter, so have the Italians. But from my future perspective, where skin color matters way more than literally any other factor, it's kind of weird. But that's the 90s for you.

1997, in fact.

I am a stranger in a strange land.

Anyway. What Gotham needs is external oversight, pulling out and imprisoning the corrupt justice and political figures, then major police reforms, then a massive anti-organized crime crackdown.

I'm working on it.

…I'm starting to work on it.

I'm planning to work on it. Like, actual planning. I am in the planning stage.

Gotham, thanks to its position over some sort of fucked up hellmouth/sleeping eldritch monster, is a pretty fucked up place. It literally needs a central figure to impede and frustrate the organized crime so they have less resources to counter when the corrupt justice department members get arrested and the police department gets cleaned out.

And that figure needs a reputation. An aura of fear and uncertainty.

To get to even the first boss, I have to grind and level up.

Which, unfortunately, means punching some muggers.

However, this isn't an MMO. Muggers don't spawn on every street, or respawn in a few minutes. The four actual crimes I've stopped tonight isn't actually that bad a result for me.

Mostly, I'm familiarizing myself with the area. Solid grapple points. Good places to hide. Places to park the Batcycle mark 1, which is literally just a fairly aggressive chopper style bike with armored saddlebags.

It was cheap, topping out at less than 20 grand with runflat tires and some security features. I'm not actually a big fan of chopper style bikes, but you have to admit, there's a certain iconic style to it, especially when you're in a Batman outfit. It's temporary anyway.

It's about four in the morning when I call it a night, park the motorcycle in a large moving van I've set up as a forward base, and take a fairly nondescript car back to the Manor.


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xxxxxxxxx Chapter Two


The Batcave is functional now. Still needs a good bit of work, but functional. I did most of the work myself, with Alfred's help. That's how my various construction related skills got high enough that I took the opportunity to merge them.

I don't want to do any more mission critical work until I've got my new combined skill back up into the teens, so Bat-infrastructure is currently on hold.

Let me tell you, having to do all the work of making a secret base yourself is a tremendous pain in the ass.

"Good morning, Master Bruce," Alfred greeted me as I exited the car in the underground but not-secret garage. "Welcome home. I trust it has been a productive night?"

"I directly stopped a mugging, an apartment robbery, and a domestic violence incident. I also indirectly stopped another mugging," I reported as I made my way into the Manor, with Alfred following me. "I almost got levels in Batman and Combat, I did get a level in Pick Them Off, and I actually got two levels in both Climbing and Parkour. There were also various XP gains across most of my stealth skills. The only real problem I ran into was an incident where I used the grapple to ascend a building, and the first thing I hooked gave way and I slipped back down." I shook my head. "Right in front of a mugging victim. Embarrassing. I actually got penalized in the XP for it."

"Mortifying, I'm sure," Alfred replied sardonically. "I suppose more training is in order? Or perhaps a redesign?"

"Both, obviously."

You might be wondering why Alfred knows about the Gamer system.

One, you can't keep secrets from Alfred. I told him everything.

Yes, even that his ward died and I replaced him. Even that I'm not an alternate universe Bruce Wayne and am actually a random nobody and a shitty fake imitation.

The guy deserved to know.

But-

Some things he didn't hear.

Some things he heard differently. It actually took a bit to figure out what the fuck he was talking about when we tried to discuss it after he met me in the hospital, post plane crash.

The situation is under some sort of bane, or geas, or memetic modifier, clearly imposed on us by the higher order being or beings that set this up.

I conceptually AM Batman here. And Batman has the secret identity, Bruce Wayne.

When I told everything to him, what Alfred heard is that, during my near death experience, I was taken and shown bits and pieces of the multiverse.

I also gave him the impression that seeing the heights that I, Batman/Bruce Wayne could reach, actually scared me, given I was just starting out. That I was intimidated. That I saw the others' mistakes, and desperately wanted to avoid them. That I saw the others' successes, and wondered how I could ever pull them off.

And when I got help from some patrons in the form of the Gamer system, that I was ashamed that, unlike the 'other, normal' Batman from alternate universes, I needed powers.

I'm not fucking ashamed. Jesus fucking Christ on a stick, I'm not a real Batman. I need all the help I can get. When Bat Mite answered my panicked call for help, it was like the Heavens opened up and God gave me a reassuring hug.

But, I sort of am Batman. And who is Batman without his butler, father figure, Alfred Pennyworth? So no matter what I tell the guy, he accepts me as his Bruce. Alfred seems more pleased that I, Bruce Wayne, love and trust him enough to share these personal secrets with him.

It's fucked up. I don't like it. Alfred deserves better than me.

Then again, most people deserve better than me.

But I'm doing my best.


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Instead of going immediately to sleep, I instead hit the gym.

The very large, very expensive, rush built gym on the other side of the Wayne Manor gardens. It had all the usual high end gymnasium stuff. Weight machines, treadmills, uneven bars, a pommel horse, and the like, but also other, more exotic stuff.

It had a diving pool thirty meters deep. It had configurable climbing walls. It had a huge empty space set up with configurable structures to mimic buildings and alleys.

Once the regular contractors were gone, I added a shooting range. There were grapple targets in the roof. Tightropes and slacklines. Punching bags and realistic weighted mannequins and those Wing-Chung wooden dummies.

It also had an Alfred.

Alfred had guns.

I got shot a lot.

Since I'm a Gamer, not only do I gain XP for dodging bullets, I also level up resistances.

I am literally making myself immune to big bullets by getting shot a lot by little bullets.

But there's more to it than just doing a swinging, climbing, parkour routine while Alfred fires half powder load .45s at me while I try to dodge.

I also quietly sing, or hum, or just think, a mental workout music routine that stretches from the Rocky theme to Batmetal. This part kind of rules, I'm not going to lie.

Mental note, I need to set some more time for music practice later.

Today was a good day, though. I take only eight hits and succeed at all my swings and jumps. I end up capping the day off by literally falling five storeys with no assistance, using nothing but my skills to mitigate damage by hitting and rolling to redirect the force.

The force still breaks one of my hips at the bend, sending the jagged end of my femur so high up my side it nearly exits at my waist. It's not the only bone that breaks, and that doesn't even mention the torn ligaments, tendons, and bruising.

+220 Falling XP +400 Landing XP. +420 Endurance XP. +530 Grit XP.

I'm in fucking agony. But I'm not out of HP, and I've got a perk, 'That's Where Blood Belongs' that negates internal bleeding damage. So I'm not at any risk of dying from that.

Instead, I groan and, with Alfred's help, drag my broken ass over to a non-staining plastic cot, +100 Grit XP, and turn myself off for eight straight hours.

+500 Training (Body) XP.

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Batman is known for a lot of different things, but a core concept is that of preparation.

Training.

I had a Gamer system now. It didn't give me magic. I couldn't make instant dungeons. In fact, it didn't even have general character levels, only stats and skills. It was, generally speaking, fairly low powered compared to the kinds of things I've read about.

But the single most powerful thing the system gave me was the ability to train.

I had three types of training, corresponding to the three skill groups based on the three stat groups. I could train my body, my mind, and my soul.

Training a specific stat could level up the stat. Training a specific skill could level up the skill.

But I could also do a kind of generalized training, and it didn't level up.

Instead, it stored the generated XP.

Which I could then spend to level up my skills. What's more, I could spend that XP for a boost AT ANY TIME, even in the middle of combat. And the skill increase was instant.

In fact, I currently have more than fifteen thousand points of body related XP stored away.

Why then, do I have a fairly shitty Combat skill of only 9?

Because gamers know that it's easier to level a skill up when its low. Bank your boosts for later, unless it's something easy and linear all the way through.

And also, if Bane shows up and starts kicking my ass, or I'm tied up by the League of Shadows, or I'm in a raging river and I need to swim better than a fish, I need as many points banked as possible to save my ass.

Uh, don't ask how many Mind and Spirit points I have, though. Look, I'm trying to invent Batman's arsenal as fast as possible, and that means I need my technical skills as high as possible, as fast as possible.

So I have been spending more time training mind skills than my body. But efficiency is an important thing to consider, and there's another consideration that means I like to sign off each day doing horribly masochistic things like deliberately falling farther and farther, or getting shot by Alfred.

I heal like a video game character.

So long as I get at least eight hours of continuous sleep, I'm fully healed when I wake up.

So every day, before I go to sleep, I mangle the absolute shit out of myself in the name of training.

And fortunately, I get stat XP while doing general training as well. Two stats, Endurance and Grit, cover everything from how long I can run, to poison resistance, to magical attacks hitting me in the soul.

They're some of my best stats. Actually, Grit IS my best stat, at 29, which is edging into 'ascended human' territory. Not quite true superhuman, but the way that tough, named DC humans generally don't die to mook level attacks. Endurance is my third best stat, right behind Dexterity.

My best guess is that the average mainline Batman, the ones experienced enough to have several sidekicks and be on the Justice League, has most of his stats at 50 plus.

I've got a ways to go. I'm focusing early efforts on Endurance and Grit because I need to survive to get there.

My actual progression rate is weird. Like, the formula for how much XP I need per level maps closest to a cubic rate, but I haven't figured out the actual equation yet. Each new level fails to map to my expectations. Level one is 1000 XP. Level two is 1100 XP. Level 10 is 7000 XP. Level 11 is 7400 XP. Level 25 is 25000 XP. Grit level 29 was 34750 XP.

Level 25 being peak human maps to the idea that shit gets a lot harder to level after that. Also, getting XP seems to have the same rate up to 25, then starts getting harder after that. Like, the actual amount of XP I get is the same for a given activity, but the easier stuff no longer gives XP. I used to get 50 XP for every minute I held my breath. Now I still get 50 XP for every minute, but only after I've held my breath for 15 minutes, first. Given the recovery time between breath holding sessions, it's no longer a time optimal way of leveling Endurance. A pity. It was actually the first stat I managed to get to 25.

The weird thing is, getting shot gives more Grit XP than it does Endurance XP, even after the slowdown. Might be a willpower thing.


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Author's note:

This is not a Gamer fic.

Yes, I'm using elements from the Gamer. Indeed, they're part of the concept of the story. But they're not central to the story. This isn't a fic about numbers. Numbers going up do not make my head go brrrrrrr, no offense to those who do enjoy that. In fact, other that the initial chapters, which are there to establish the concept of 'this is how a nobody can pretend to be Batman', actual numbers won't show up much. I'm not going to include '200xp gained!' every time Batman does something. It's intrusive and annoying. It's a background thing. I probably won't even bother posting a character sheet. I have one, but it's subject to constant revision as the story requires.

Because, again, this is not a Gamer fic. This is not a game, not an RPG. This is a story. The Gamer elements are there to serve the story, not dominate it.

What this is, is a story about Batman.

Out of all the aliens and metas and mutants and magical beings in DC comics, Batman is the least human.

Weird, right?

But one of the things I've always appreciated about the character is that they actually do acknowledge that. The guy is grim. Brooding. Paranoid. Constantly preparing. Superman has a crush. Superman goes on dates. Superman flies out to his parent's house for pie. Batman has insane passionate flings with villainesses that are hot enough to overcome his discipline. The rest of the time, he's preparing. Training. Grinding.

The only really human aspect of Batman, throughout most incarnations, is the Batfamily. And that's beautiful, I think. It's interesting. It's a good story. That this, if you forgive the term, BATSHIT INSANE man still has the compassion to gather those who need him, and enough need for human contact to value them.

I am not Batman. I think most people understand that they are not, and never really could be, Batman. I don't think I've ever even seen a Batman SI before. He's just not human.

And that's what this story is about. A human trying to be Batman. The MC isn't really me so much as he is a generic everyman SI with a few me aspects thrown in for flavor, like adding a bit of parsley on top of your instant ramen. He's a fan of DC comics and animation but hasn't seen or read everything. He doesn't have an encyclopedia like knowledge of the setting, but he's not ignorant of it either. This isn't metaknowledge the fic, but taking steps to head off certain disasters, or going for obvious powerups is the kind of thing I just about expect from reading DC fics, so it's less about exploiting the setting and more about not irritating the reader because 'of course he'd do this, why isn't he doing this'.

So the Gamer aspects are there to give the MC a fighting chance. They have a clear, artificial source. But most of the story is, really, about a guy who's not actually insane, and the troubles he has trying to fill a pair of bat-themed boots. A mix of comedy, action, and drama.

I hope you enjoy.

PS: I am writing again. I had stopped my patreon about a year ago, because I got a new job and didn't have much time for writing. Things went well for a while. New insurance helped me pay for my meds, things looked good.

Then I got sicker. And sicker. And lost the new job.

I am now unemployed and on medicaid. I'm broke. I'm also pretty sick, and it doesn't look good for getting better. This is probably the downward spiral.

So I can't promise a rigid schedule. But I AM writing as much as I can. There's new chapters of both Then Be Batman and Ice Pie on my patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/Nugar

Some other new stories and new materials are also incoming. Your support is appreciated!

 

[KonahrikYol]

I like it, look forward to more.

 

[hyperspacewizard]

It was great love the idea can't wait to see where it goes

 

[macdjord]

It was pretty late at night, and I'm patrolling a mix of slums, and the slightly higher end commercial districts that border the slums. So far, it's been fairly quiet, crime wise. I broke into an apartment where I heard a violent domestic argument, dislocated the shoulder of and punched a guy unconscious, and gave the woman a card with the address of a women's shelter I've been supporting.

Click to shrink...

You seem to be flip-flopping on past and present tense here.

 

[Lillie Jones]

Caught this SP and rare Batman Si Gamer fic .
Whilst Batman 's Gamer system is more acceptable to give the mc a fighting chance for him for the rookie Batman.
So He's really 90's Batman style and still building up Batman shoes and grinding for a rainy day.
Looking forward to more, and a definite wild ride for the newest Batman and saving Gotham City, and Batmite really is a good bro.
Watched
Continue on .
Cheers!

 

[2oclock]

This is really good.

 

[Wivk]

I really like that the gamer power comes from a specific named omnipotent being rather than a random omnipotent being. I think more stories should have snobs than robs or bobs.

 

[Nugar]

You seem to be flip-flopping on past and present tense here.

Click to shrink...

I think it's right here, because the paragraph is a mix of present and past events. It's not a well constructed paragraph, but the tenses are correct for the actions.

I really like that the gamer power comes from a specific named omnipotent being rather than a random omnipotent being. I think more stories should have snobs than robs or bobs.

Click to shrink...

I always kinda liked Bat Mite, for all that he was a symptom of Golden Age syndrome. Mxy is a decent character, but I also like the idea of 'If God is really watching, we should at least be entertaining.' He's nearly omnipotent, but really he's just a fan.

 

[macdjord]

I think it's right here, because the paragraph is a mix of present and past events. It's not a well constructed paragraph, but the tenses are correct for the actions.

Click to shrink...

You've got at least one error in the first sentence: "It was pretty late at night, and I'm patrolling a mix of slums"

If the fic is being written in past-tense (which I assume it is because that's how Ice Pie is), the correct version would be:

It was pretty late at night, and I was patrolling a mix of slums, and the slightly higher end commercial districts that border the slums. So far, it had been fairly quiet, crime wise. I'd broken into an apartment where I heard a violent domestic argument, dislocated the shoulder of and punched a guy unconscious, and given the woman a card with the address of a women's shelter I'd been supporting.​

 

[Thiccc Shaedy]

You might wanna threadmark your chapters, bro. Good story, though.

 

[Nicohals J Westerberg]

I love the idea, I really do

 

[Scholar of Time]

Then I got sicker. And sicker. And lost the new job.

I am now unemployed and on medicaid. I'm broke. I'm also pretty sick, and it doesn't look good for getting better. This is probably the downward spiral.

Click to shrink...

Intrigued. I hope you survive and thrive; if it seems impossible for the first one, I hope the second one is as potent as possible during the allotted time.

 

[Nugar]

A lot of speculation, and I'm super happy that people care enough to speculate. Like, stoked. Thanks for everyone who has commented and is reading, and thanks to those who signed up for my patreon. I was able to afford to go to Little Rock today to a specialist. Seriously, thanks.

Now, some of the speculation I don't want to talk about, because it's the kind of thing that comes up in the story. But here's an infodump about technobabble.

This is just information about the state of technology in the version of DC Earth I'm using here. This is not a chapter and may be safely ignored by anyone not interested in a huge infodump about comic book technology. Anything truly important will be discussed in the story proper.




This world, which I'm still not sure of the universe number, but I'm just calling DC Earth XXX, is currently in the year 1997. Twenty six years behind the date of my death in what I consider Prime Earth.

So, clearly, there's some things they haven't developed yet. They have the internet, but large scale social media isn't really a thing. We're in the Geocities age, which here is called Webnode. A free, small scale, personal site host that gets expensive fast if you get much traffic.

Cell phones exist. Remarkably, the era of the large bag-phone came and went quickly here, and we're currently in the brickphone era. A Finnish company called Valifone currently dominates with a nearly indestructible brick. I have several, with service provided by USTalk. They can text, badly, with the old 10key pattern, have good signal in Gotham, and indeed most cities, but are kind of a crapshoot in the country. Notably, they have great battery life.

Because, while this is in the past relative to the tech I'm used to, this is a comic book world. Mad science has mostly made one offs that never get developed, but there are some pretty noteworthy things that have been developed that change certain baselines.

Batteries, for instance. The reason bag-phones were able to drop to brick phones so fast was that efficient battery technology already exists. Instead of lithium, the most common battery metal is rubidium. Same column, much larger atomic mass. Also, the local periodic table goes up to, I shit you not, 681, with a lot of gaps.

Rubidium-antimony-wellium (a surprisingly stable, and relatively plentiful, element #141, used in tiny quantities in the catalyst) batteries enjoy a frankly absurd energy density of 965 watt-hours per kilogram. The best commercial batteries I know of on Prime Earth don't quite hit 300 watt-hours per kilogram. Powering my bat-gadgets, even the relative energy hog of the bat-grapple, is easy, even with a tiny, lightweight battery.

Rubidium is rarer than lithium, but wellium is extracted from sea water at a ratio of about 5.6 micromoles to ten kilograms of water. Not a great rate, but cheap, because it sticks to electrically charged tin cathodes. Now, desalination plants and salt plants pass their brine over tin grids and enjoy the bonus money. Most of the cost of the production comes when separating the wellium from the oxides and salts that also end up encrusting the tin grid.

However, more so than the unusual element, the reason the rubidium batteries enjoy such a bonkers energy density is their construction. And that gets into the one big, mad science technology that is the primary driver of background tech advancements in this world. A technology you've seen in DC comics mostly in the hands of villains, which has been the key to startling advancements in materials technology.

Cold tech.

Freeze guns.

Primarily used by Captain Cold, and Mr. Freeze, their achievements weren't inventing the basic technology, it was in the improvement and miniaturization of it, so that it became viable as man portable weapons.

Waynetech's freeze machine weighs more than two tons and uses about a kilowatt every seventeen minutes.

First, let me explain some background. On Prime Earth, most of our industrial structural materials fall into two broad categories, each with a notable subcategory.

Polymers are the relatively new kid on the block. Primarily carbon based molecule chains in all sorts of configurations. Plastic is the big one everyone knows, but there are others. However, we discovered that if you lay in some sort of strong fiber, like spun glass fibers, and then fix them in place with plastic, you get an even stronger material. Later, we came up with an even stronger fiber, carbon fiber. But as advanced as carbon fiber is, it really only has tensile strength. To add rigidity, you have to embed it in a polymer resin.

Metals are the classic material. Metals have all sorts of properties, so you pick the one you want, and make stuff out of it. Then, the dominant subcategory, alloys. You mix two or more elements, adding and subtracting properties, and sometimes getting wildly new characteristics.

However, it should be noted, pretty much all Prime Earth alloys are mainly made of one given metal. In steel, or other iron alloys, iron makes up the vast majority of the mass of the alloy. Only a few percent of things like vanadium, or molybdenum, or chromium, or all three, or more, are added to the alloy. And the reason for that is, if you add too much of another element, they just don't blend right. You get chunks of one, surrounded by the other.

It turns out that this is a failure of our processes, not the concept. So companies have been putting a lot of research into methods to more evenly blend metals. Instead of 96, 2, 1, 1, they're trying 30, 30, 30, 5, 5, or 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, or all sorts of combinations. These new ratios are called High Entropy Alloys, because they must be mixed very, very carefully, or you get stew instead of jello.

That being said, a lot of effort is being put into developing them, because just the ones we've found so far indicate that they could have some absolutely amazing properties. Memory materials, super strong alloys, semiconductors, superconductors, and more. Alloys that are both incredibly hard, and thus wear resistant and low friction, with high flexibility. Imagine a sheet of metal foil you can flop and fold and wrap around things, but takes a diamond to scratch. This is Prime Earth tech.

Superhero Earth tech takes that and goes even further. And they're way, way more advanced at it than us, thanks to the invention of the freeze chamber back in the 40s.

This is actually something Waynetech kind of specializes in. Oh, we do other stuff, but many of our industrial products and nearly all of our military products are based on this.

Take a quantity of pure element. In this case, because it's our best seller, we'll say lithium. Put it in a vacuum chamber. Now, vaporize that shit. Get it hot enough to boil. Lithium doesn't seem to care how you do it, and has a low boiling point, so we just use a conventional electric furnace. What you want is monoatomic lithium gas.

Now, do the same thing in another chamber, with a different element. In this case, beryllium. And again, with titanium. And lastly, vanadium.

Now, you've got four sources of monoatomic gaseous metal. Very, very, very hot metal gas. If you just mix the gases, you can actually get some useful products, but mostly you get stew again, because they cool off at different temperatures. No, what you need is for them to all be the same temperature before they touch each other.

So each gas, a little at a time, is passed through a freeze chamber, and reduced to absolute zero.

Except… it's a weird absolute zero. There's zero atomic movement, but there's a memory of what the temperature SHOULD be. Frankly, I don't understand it. It violates all the rules of physics as I know them. But what I have been able to understand, is that it's specifically because this is a universe where the Speed Force exists. It's applying molecular deceleration via the principles the Flash uses to run up to, and beyond, the speed of light itself. Part of how it works is why Captain Cold can freeze someone solid with his cold gun, but when they unthaw, they're alive. Speed-memory. The energy is there, just not expressed.

So these single, floating metal atoms are suddenly turned from hyperactive ping-pong balls to pure dead weight. They fall to the bottom of the deposition chamber.

Where they are joined, at specific ratios and in specific orders, by the atoms of other elements, like a sand painting. Instead of fighting the issues of atomic attraction via covalent or ionic bonding, which is what complicates conventional High Entropy Alloy formation, the atoms are just physically mixed in a thorough way.

And there are other things that can change the outcome, too. Instead of just a mixed pile of loose atoms, it might be a mixed pile of loose atoms, falling on, in, and around a framework. A titanium mesh, to add rigidity to a flexible alloy, or silica wafers, to make new kinds of semiconductor chips.

Finally, the freeze process is reversed- slowly. All that heat is still there. But it can be prevented from being expressed, allowing the mass of atomic sand to get warm enough to form bonds and truly alloy, while the actual heat is drawn off through conventional cooling methods.

Given the elements involved, the alloy is commonly called LibertyV. It's sort of expensive per kilogram, but it's got the same density as aluminum and is noticeably stronger than titanium in all categories, meaning that for a given strength target, you can get some serious weight savings. The most common use for it is for crankshafts, camshafts, and piston rods in conventional engines, and turbines for jet engines.

Only the most insanely over budgeted black projects use it for things like the frame or skin of an airplane, given that the cost per ounce is just over that of silver. However, this world's Blackbird equivalent fleet is still flying, lacking many of the maintenance issues that killed it in Prime Earth.

And the thing is? LibertyV, and indeed any of our other alloys, can be made even better with APSC, Aligned Polymer Strand Coats, generally just called coats. Another, not quite mad science, but certainly advanced science, technology.

Basically, various kinds of short polymer strands are created. That implies that they're carbon based, but some of them are actually inorganic. These short polymer strands are then applied to a given material the way powder coat paint is. The material is given a charge, which attracts free floating polymer strands. Then, precisely calibrated energy fields, sort of like proto-forcefield stuff, are applied, forcing the strands into perfect alignment.

Imagine you've got a naked rat. Then you dump a shitload of fur over it. The fur sticks to the rat, then bunches up literally as dense and tight as it can go, with each hair tightly pressed in on all sides by more hair. Then you realize that, instead of an ugly rat, you've got a cute chinchilla.

What you do from there depends on what you want. Sometimes, you want the hairs to only be bonded at the root. With the right polymers, you get a surface that traps and absorbs EMF radiation. Not all of it, or, at least, no one type can absorb the full spectrum, but radar absorbent coats are easy. And there's one that absorbs the entire spectrum visible to ordinary humans, resulting in a black so black Anish Kapoor would blow a load in his pants.

That particular one has resulted in some pretty good solar panel improvements, too.

You also might want to bond the tips, as well as the roots, resulting in some interesting flexibility options. Or maybe you bond the whole length. What Waynetech has really been getting into here lately, now that computer modeling is getting better, is targeted area bonding. We're developing the ability to reinforce some areas while keeping flexibility in others, and adding abrasion resistance here and there. It's exciting stuff.

So what I'm saying is, DC Earth XXX might be a few years away from LED monitor screens, but we've got some frankly astonishing material tech.

Take one of the big scifi technology goals: carbon monofilament. It's supposed to be super strong for its diameter, and super thin, so in addition to making crazy strong fiber and cloth, you can also use it to cut through just about everything, right?

Well, we don't quite have that. Like, we can make carbon monofilaments, that's actually what some of the APSC coats are, but they're millimeter lengths at best, not like, meters. No, Waynetech's strongest long fibers aren't based on carbon.

They're iron.

Not even steel. They are specifically long chains of iron atoms triple bonded to each other, called Single Iron Crystal chains. Of course, these chains are just stupidly reactive, and dissolve in just about any sort of medium, so you have to keep them in an inert gas chamber, or ideally, vacuum. Then they coat them, starting with an exotic bismuth compound, then moving on to layers of carbon polymers (more of that APSC process!), which are run through a catalyst which fuses the tips as well as the roots of the chains.

What you end up with is a microscopic fiber that, proportionally, has the kind of tensile strength Skitter manages to get out of Darwin's bark spider silk. Superhero world spider web, rather than the really good but noticeably less strength shown by Prime Earth arachnids.

Then it has to be spun into threads and turned into rope or cloth. I'm using it for the line for the Batgrapples and as the primary material my costume is made of, because it's very flexible but also really hard to cut.

So it's good vs knives, and will stop actual penetration really well, but doesn't do squat versus impact. Unfortunately, I don't have any sort of good reactive impact plates yet, so I'm using a mix of coated LibertyV plates, and some layers of another, harder and stiffer material that doesn't have a catchy name yet. IDP3020 has a lot of potential, because it's harder than sapphire and has good tensile strength, but absolutely bonkers flexural strength and impact toughness.

Unfortunately, it's got a pretty big weakness in that its fracture toughness is absolute dogshit.

Basically, this is the prince rupert's drop of metal alloys. There's an internal mesh made of, guess what, Single Iron Crystal chains. Then a really good, iridium dominant high entropy alloy is formed around it. It's dense and heavy, but stronger than LibertyV. The interesting bit is that, where the incredible hardness and toughness of the primary body of a prince rupert's drop comes from the fact that the outside layer of glass has formed into a tight crystal that wants to collapse inward, but can't, and is thus already pre-stressed against outside forces, IDP3020 has the reinforcement happen around the exotic bismuth compound that keeps the SIC chains from dissolving. Imagine coating a bridge's struts in diamond, then filling in the gaps with titanium.

It's absolutely super strong. But, unfortunately, just like a prince rupert's drop, once you actually compromise that internal crystal, it all goes to shit. The whole internal crystal structure just fucking shatters from one end to another. That's not quite as much of a violent ending of existence as a prince rupert's drop breaking, because it's still surrounded by a pretty strong alloy, but it goes from being able to take a moderate punch from Superman to being about as strong as an equivalent volume of aluminum, and while still being super heavy.

What that means in manufacturing terms is that it must be created and cast as a single piece. You can't cut it with a laser or machine it to fit tolerances. Drilling holes in it is right out. All of that compromises the internal crystal. And it's basically impossible to get really tight tolerances out of a cast in place material without being able to adjust it later. The best we can do is just make it with holes, knobs, and lips so we can make other material parts grab onto it and hold it in place.

If we can figure out the tolerances, or a way of machining it to form, it's gonna make some bitching power armor.

Speaking of power armor, you need a way to make it move. And that's going pretty well, as evidenced by my batwing-glider-cape.

Some of those alloys are memory materials, changing shape with various methods ranging from electricity to external magnetic fields to heat. And some of those coatings can also influence shape. And one set Waynetech has access to could potentially be used as a myomer muscle strand.

Two separate coatings. Put one on a sheet of material, and hook it up to electricity. Put another on another sheet of material, align it properly, and hook it up to the ground. Run electricity through it, and they try to slide against each other, with force based on total surface contact and voltage.

Combine that, with stretchy, folded fabric and memory materials that stiffen into shape, and a thick but not excessively large cape can thin out and expand into an aerodynamic shape much larger than what you think it would be.

My cape isn't even secret tech. It's literally based on technology which is already available for civilian thrill seekers. A combination of wing suits and extremely lightweight hang gliders, made for people who want to climb up to the top of a mountain and throw themselves off, but don't want to carry a big heavy bag of poles and fabric. It's the same shit Kiteman will end up using later.

The only unconventional bit of my batcape is a strip down the middle of my back and a corresponding bit down the center of the cape, which when electricity is applied, magnetizes and attaches itself from my neck to my ass, so the glider is balanced, rather than all my weight hanging from the front edge.

It is by far my favorite piece of bat-gadgetry. I'm putting a lot of resources into making it even better. I want true flight. I want WINGS.

Come on, I'm a superhero in a superhero world and I can't even fly under my own power? That's bullshit. But I'll fix it. Got some stuff in process.

Another interesting technology this world has is really good tire grip surface material. I hate to admit it, but this is a Lexcorp developed thing. Using the concepts of APSCs, and being able to essentially coat surfaces in polymer fur, they developed a tire that's basically made of wrapped layers of shag carpeting. A woven material that holds what are basically standing ranks of fuzzy feathers.

This isn't based on van der Waals forces, like the fuzzy pads on gecko feet. No, this is far cruder, but still highly effective. The fuzz of the feathers locks them together with their neighbors, just like real feathers, while still allowing it to flex and deform. But the grip surface comes from the feather spines themselves, which are far thicker, and look like they were made by someone using a bundle of lightning bolts as a straight edge. Just jagged as hell and edgy as a 90s antihero.

The tires are based on the principle of siping. This is a thing done to high end tires, especially racing tires and tires made for wet or icy conditions. There are a lot of road conditions that lower the surface to surface friction of tires. When you can't rely on sheer friction, you start looking for finger holds. That's where tire tread comes in, providing edges to hook onto surface, and creating channels for lose material like pebbles and water. But you can take it even farther, by cutting thin lines into the surface of the tire. Unlike the tread, this doesn't remove material to form a gap.

Instead, as the tire flexes on contact with the road, little chunks of material can flex and separate slightly from their neighbors, forming thousands of shallow, fine edged lips which grab at the road like fingernails. What that dastardly bald asshole made is a tire surface with super-siping. Each 'feather' spine, packed in next to each other but able to flex slightly different from its neighbor, provides its own tiny little fingernail grabbing at every surface imperfection.

Somehow, it even somewhat counteracts the main drawbacks of siping. Siped tires have the best traction for mud, water, and snow, but generally feel squirmy on hot dry road. The hot chunks of surface flex more, and the additional traction is counteracted by the additional movement of the tire material. Also, they wear down faster. Lexcorp's tires don't noticeably squirm under the forces of normal driving speed, so the tires can be used year round. And while they don't last as long as normal tires, it's not a huge difference.

Heck, knowing Lex, he solved the wear issue entirely, but wanted them to wear out. Lexcorp is big on planned obsolescence. He's just that kind of asshole.

The technology is great, though, as expected of Lex. Although Waynetech can't sell it without a lawsuit, I've actually incorporated it into my costume. Not just my gloves and boots, but also patches on my arms and legs to make climbing easier.

Oh, one last really noteworthy thing I think I should mention. I talked about how good rubidium batteries are, but there's actually a startup company working on an even better battery.

Some sort of weird bullshit technology called Multi-Stage Batteries.

Your common battery is a package of potential energy bound up in a paused chemical reaction. Take a basic car battery. It's a plastic box full of lead plates. The plates are submerged in sulfuric acid. The details are more complex, all sorts of manufacturing tricks to increase surface area and suchlike, but that's basically it. It's made that way, you don't even need to charge it when you make it. Fresh, clean lead plates dipped in sulfuric acid, and it's ready to discharge electricity.

When electricity is allowed to flow, the sulfuric acid reacts with the plates, forming lead sulfate. The acid in the water is largely depleted, leaving mostly just water. If you then charge it with electricity, the sulfur leaves the lead plates, and the water becomes strong sulfuric acid again. Simple and repeatable, though there's lifespan loss due to inefficiencies and changes. It's basically like a jenga tower of potential. Take blocks down, get electricity. Add electricity, stack blocks back up.

Multi-Stage Batteries, aka MSBs, are like if you bought several jenga towers made of different materials and stacked them all on top of each other. Unfortunately, that's pretty unstable, so you have to build a scaffold around it, and you have to only play one set at a time, from the top down, but it's a way of packing a LOT more potential energy into a given footprint.

What they've got so far goes like this:

Starting with a fully charged battery, current is allowed to flow.

The first stage is catalyst based, already a bonkers concept, and it's the electrolyte itself that reduces, providing free electrons to the anode. This releases XENON GAS from the complicated soup that is the electrolyte.

Seriously, there's a whole category of chemistry that uses what I generally considered inert gas, the noble gases. As organic chemistry is any chemistry that includes carbon, and inorganic is chemistry without carbon, there's a third category here, called royal chemistry, which involves noble gases. Some of those super high weight elements are capable of bizarre stuff. The idea is, it's the royals that boss around the mere noble.

The xenon gas is drawn off and captured. This stage is pretty good, and just by itself releases about 800 watt-hours per kilogram. Not quite as good as a rubidium battery, but good.

Then, the reduction stops. To resume it, the cathode and anode plates have to be removed from the electrolyte soup. Then a whole new cathode and anode made of a different material is inserted, and the electrons allowed to flow again. This stage is okay. Better than a lithium ion battery, but not great by local standards. Only about 550ish watt-hours.

Then, you do it again! New cathode and anodes, coupled with a set of neutral, non-catalyst plates which serve to remove one of the oxidation products from the soup on discharge, or provide it on recharge. This stage is fairly pathetic, only about a hundred and seventy watt-hours.

But it sets up for another stage! A whole new set of anodes and cathodes, and nearly 700 more goddamn watt-hours!

And there's one more stage! Technically, it's got the most energy of all of them, but in order to release it, an external energy field has to be supplied, which cuts the total produced power to about 600ish watt-hours again.

That's nearly 2800 fucking watt-hours out of a kilogram of battery! That's nuts. Absolutely batshit impossible mad science.

Here's why nobody, not even Lexcorp, has attempted to buy them out yet.

That's just the kilogram of starting battery. Adding in the weight of all the different cathodes, anodes, catalysts, neutral plates, gas capture, energy field, switching infrastructure, and the secondary rubidium battery needed as a buffer to keep electrical flow consistent between stages and also to run the field emitter, the total energy density plummets to between 900 and 1000 watt hours per kilogram, or about as good as a rubidium battery.

At a thousand times the cost. And there's size limits. All that stuff takes up space. The absolute smallest they've managed to get one down to is the size of a car engine.

And nobody in their right goddamn mind would put this battery in a car. That is a LOT of potential energy packed into a package with a lot of moving parts.

Ever seen a battery do a thermal runaway? Ever see a battery short?

Ever see a cellphone explode?

Now scale that up, up, and away!

Naw. Everyone's watching that startup with interest, but they're gonna have to solve some major goddamn problems before I'm gonna touch them with a thousand foot pole while surrounded by professional firefighters armed with absolutely shitloads of purple K.

They've made a stack of jenga towers of potential energy, but the bottom blocks are made of mad science, and it just gets worse the farther you go up. Like piling up C4, TNT, and chlorine triflouride and slowly pulling the potential energy out of it.

Just five kinds of nope.

The weird energy field alone probably causes cancer in most people, except for the one in a million it'll activate the meta gene in.

When it all goes bad, I'm letting Superman handle that shit.


xxx


Now, let's talk about some technical differences. Both universes have computers. Both universes have GUIs. But there's some pretty major differences.

DC Earth doesn't have a Microsoft. The closest thing they have is Lexcorp, which makes its own suite of comprehensive office productivity software, ranging from image editing, typing, slideshows, spreadsheets, and databases.

The most popular operating system is so popular that it's effectively universal. STAR Labs, which is sort of a non-governmental DARPA, made the first dedicated operating system. Typical of research focused stuff, it used a command line interface and was chunky and unfriendly. It seemed kind of similar to early UNIX. A copy machine company, Luminate, came up with the idea of the GUI, but never managed to make an example.

However, a Finnish mad scientist, (reportedly extremely extroverted and rather huggy, that's how you know he was insane for a Finn), sat down and made what was essentially Linux/Finux. It ran natively on the system, as opposed to the early windows applications, which ran on top of DOS. It was revolutionary at the time, as he had independently thought of the same graphical user interface idea. It was called VOROS: Visuaalinen Operaattori Rajapinta Operating System. Or, as a literal translation, GUI OS but in Finnish.

Although he originally tried to monetize it, the company he partnered with fucked him over and essentially stole his work, and attempted to bury him in lawyers. Angry, he released it open source, and it was so much better than everything else that pretty much everyone adopted it immediately and began producing their own versions, especially after he went to jail for bombing the company headquarters and killing everyone involved, including the lawyers. He's actually due to get out sometime in the late twenty teens.

So now, when people ask you what operating system you prefer, they mean what flavor of VOROS do you use. LEXEYE has the largest market share globally, but CAYUS from Kordtech is seen as the thinking man's operating system. Waynetech actually has its own, but while it's available for purchase, we don't really try to sell it to the public, it's just our own in house build. All of the versions use essentially the same drivers and hardware, so the public doesn't HAVE to use the same thing and there's room for competition, but only WTOS pcs can connect to the company intranet.

You know, supposedly. It's not hard to spoof. But the in house builds have all of the right settings and group policies and everything by default. And no secret spyware. LEXEYE has gotten caught secretly reporting data back to Lexcorp a few times, on top of all the metrics it publically reports. It was a big scandal the first time it happened. Boosted CAYUS users by a good margin. But given the open source licensing deals, there's not much money in making operating systems, so Kordtech is still considerably smaller than Waynetech.

Computer hardware wise, there's some pretty big differences, too.

One, yes, it's surprisingly common in this world for PC keyboards to not have labeled keys. One of the public (widely known, but somewhat over credited) fathers of modern computing wore all the letters off his keyboard. Various things happened, with documentaries and magazine articles and such, and it became a trend to have unlabeled keyboards. It was seen as elite, 'I don't need to look to know what key I'm hitting' sort of thing among the dedicated computer user set. So you can actually buy them without letters now. It's a declaration of your 'leet skillz'.

Two, pc architecture is a good bit different. At this point in time on Prime Earth, the Pentium MMX series, including both the Pentium 1 MMX and the brand new Pentium 2 MMX, was king of personal computing CPUs and had a clock speed of around 200-266 MHz, with a 16kb L1 cache and a 512kb L2 cache. Common RAM amounts were 32 or 64mb, though you could go up to about 128mb if you had the money, and they usually had somewhere in the order of 5-10gb of storage.

Here, they've gone for less memory, but faster clock speed. The kind of thing I see advertised on TV or in magazines have clock speeds around 2.5 to 3.2 GHz, but L1 caches of like, 4kb, and L2s of about 64kb. Speaking of L2, it's actually a removable, upgradable chip with its own socket on the motherboard. RAM, likewise, is lower than Prime, with 8-16mb being common. Total data storage, though, is even better, with 12-15gb HDDs being common, and a lot of research is being put into speeding up HDD access speeds, because page file use is basically continuous.

Essentially, the PCs here have gone for a tiny, weak engine with high RPMs, rather than the slower but stronger style of Prime. Although actual user experience is roughly the same, it certainly makes for some wildly different programming. Thank Bat Mite I have a Gamer system to help me learn, or I'd probably give up on the idea of relearning any sort of programming.


xxx


What can I, with my Prime Earth knowledge, do for this universe?

First, a few bonafides.

I was not an engineer, or a scientist. I didn't have a PhD. I have, at various points in my life, been an auto mechanic, a diesel and hydraulic mechanic, an HVAC technician, a chemical technician, a web designer, a PC technician, a Network admin, a painting and drywall installer, and a sign painter. Professionally. I've also done various things associated with those things, like carpentry, welding, database, and other stuff. I majored in biology and minored in chemistry in college. I went back to college for a nursing degree, but didn't finish it. I've had a lot of hobbies, mostly art and writing based, like leatherworking, blacksmithing, painting, and sculpting. I love art, though I don't actually have any talent for it. And, frankly, I'm just a huge goddamn nerd. I love wikipedia and youtube. How stuff is made was one of my favorite shows, and I watched various youtube channels that talked about how stuff is made and new advancements in technology as well. I watched everything from videos making art projects to videos explaining the rise and fall of small scale superchargers for RC engines. So while I'm not an engineer, or much of a programmer, I've got a pretty good handle on a lot of subjects.

Fortunately, as Bruce Wayne, I don't have to know the precise details of the programming for quadcopter drones. I have an entire research division that takes orders from me.

So here's what ideas I've given Lucius Fox to work on so far.

Drones, as mentioned. Quadcopter style, that is, not conventional plane Predator style. They've got remote controlled conventional aircraft already. These things are gonna be godsend for surveillance. Also I'm going to make a big one and use it for most local transportation. With the crazy energy densities of rubidium batteries, the range is going to be pretty good for these. And with the super strong, super lightweight LibertyV alloy, I'm actually pretty excited for this.

Amazon style warehouse robots, and those neat little switching conveyor belts.

Amazon style automatic box makers.

Amazon.

Smartphones, with app stores and accessories.

Wifi was just invented, but we're going to expand it and make it better, with things like Bluetooth and more wireless tech in general.

Induction charging, for the electronics.

Axial flux electric motors. Conventional electric motors are radial flux motors. Mostly, you make them stronger by making them longer. They're the best solution if you want really high RPMs. Axial flux motors are a fairly new concept, used by NASA, and are game changers for hybrid cars. They use a radically different wiring scheme, and as a result are very flat, instead of long, and don't really need to be much wider than regular motors. Since they're so flat, they can be as much as 90% lighter than an equivalent conventional motor, and nearly the same in space saving. They're great for hybrid cars, because the flat motor can just be inserted between the combustion engine and the transmission without the need for a radical design. They're also the right size and shape to be fitted as hub motors, built directly into the wheels of a vehicle, rather than a central location. Also, their design makes them easy to run liquid cooling through, which vastly improves their lifespan and performance.

They do have a pretty major drawback, though, so they're not a straight upgrade, just nearly one. Due to their construction, and since they have so much of their windings at the edge of their circumference, centrifugal forces are a serious limiter, meaning, as mentioned, they have to have lower max RPMs or they'll fling themselves to pieces.

At least, on Prime Earth.

Here, we have bonkers meta alloys with tensile strengths vastly higher than anything Prime Earth has come up with. IDP3020 might not work, despite its strength, because you can't really machine it, but just using LibertyV will probably double the potential RPMs of any given design, and there's almost certainly a better choice somewhere in our catalogue of options. Also, some of those alloys are approaching superconductor levels of conductivity. The Batdrone is gonna be amazing.

Both the triangle and the oblong wankel engine layouts, which never got invented in this universe for some reason. I don't expect much out of them, but maybe the super meta alloys available can solve some of the issues with wankel engines. Liquidpiston's oblong design is super compact, and they're marketing it as a potential compact generator engine. With the right meta alloys and some development, it might be light enough to serve as a generator for the Batdrone, resulting in a hybrid design that can be refueled for larger range.

GPS exists, but we want to get in on the whole Google Earth/streetview real time mapping, where possible. I absolutely want to get as much worldwide surveillance as possible. Not because I intend to be some sort of Justice Lord tyrant, but because I want the earliest warning possible for the next alien invasion, demonic rift, or sun extinguishing event.

I've instructed R&D to put some fairly serious effort into designing an advanced temporary shelter, like a tent on steroids. We're trying to keep it cheap, so minimal use of metamaterials, but we do want it to work really well, so we're using advanced manufacturing principles. The idea is a compact pallet sort of base, which pops up into a three room rigid tent. The roof will channel and collect rainwater, which will be stored in the base to weight it down. The base will have water storage, batteries, and a small amount of sewage storage. The tent will come with lights, a small stove, and a toilet. It will also include mylar blankets and inflatable mattresses. Ideally, I want to add a radio/TV, a first aid kit, solar panels, and a charger for personal electronics, as well as a really good pump and water filter. It'd also be nice to include a few days rations and a little bit of water, always in it. The idea is for it to be light enough to be carried by two people, and of a size that they can be stacked in a truck cargo container without wasting space.

What I want is for, the next time some area is devastated by whatever, these tents get immediately distributed for the refugees. Set it in place, pop it up, and anyone not injured is good for at least a day or two. During that time, workers can fill up its storage with water, which it should be able to filter on its own. Rations can be distributed, and a separate set of sewer lines can be connected to all the tents in the area and ran to a truck, portable treatment plant, or existing sewer system. A radio/TV inside can provide entertainment, news, and instructions. As electronics progress, we can swap those out for a laptop/tablet infotainment system.

War is coming. I want to be ready.

I also told Lucius about quite a few website concepts. Google, Google Drive, Slack, Github, Salesforce, Myspace/Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Youtube, Ebay, Amazon, and Etsy.

One of my previous careers was working as a network admin for a city, so I'm also intimately familiar with emergency dispatch and database software, as well as financial management and city planning. This is how I'm going to get root access to Gotham's government everything, including the police force. Waynetech is going to be making a full combined suite of city management software, including fire and police. It'll be user friendly and fairly secure, and it'll save Gotham tens of millions of dollars anally. And I'll have access to all of it, without even needing a secret back door, because Waynetech will be their administrator support.

Honestly, it's the kind of thing I'd give away, but there's no need. We won't charge what the market will bear, but we'll still turn a solid profit. I'll consider the project a rousing success if we can get Metropolis to buy it instead of whatever shit Lex makes.

We also talked about AI, but making AI is so much easier in this universe that frankly I'm wary of getting involved with it. You start off making ChatGPT, an AI meant to steal creative jobs and make people miserable, and you end up with like, Amazo, and it tries to blow up the world.

Lexcorp surged past Waynetech's valuation in five years of Lex taking over. That was about four years ago. He's currently among the top ten richest men in the world, and only going higher. Really, the only reason he's not number one is that there's ancient monsters with ridiculous hidden, distributed fortunes, like Ras and Vandal, as well as some Middle Eastern oil/mineral/trade oligarchs. But he'll get there, because he's smart, and, frankly, that's just kinda his thing.

Waynetech, on the other hand, is only valued at about 31 billion right now. Not chump change, but a pretty long way from Lexcorp's 194 billion official valuation.

But if I can steal a march on him, get Google going, get Amazon going, get Facebook and Paypal and Apple all going before he realizes I'm a threat…

Well, I'll never overtake him. Not really. I figure he's gonna spend around 10 billion a year trying to kill Superman, and various other villainous projects. Whereas I'm going to have to do the equivalent of fixing Gotham's potholes with gold and ground up 100 dollar bills, and that's not even including the charity the rest of the country, and the world, needs. Plus paying for the Justice League, trying to get a space defense set up, setting up the emergency preparedness bunkers, food, supplies, shelters, and everything else the world's probably gonna need the next time some asshole titan covers the world in a hurricane… Plus, I don't have the ruthlessness to squeeze every dollar out of a business. My workers will be well paid, with benefits. My terms of service won't be exquisitely crafted to fuck the consumer. My products won't be made to fail the second the warranty runs out. I won't fuck the creators on my youtube knockoff, or force a billion ads down everyone's throat.

No, I don't think I'll ever beat Lex. He'll make competing products to everything I make, and he'll promote them aggressively. I'll get a solid audience of people who appreciate better, cheaper products that don't nickel and dime you for every app or surprise you with a thousand hidden fees, but I've got no illusions that Lex won't find plenty of customers.

Frankly, I just have moral objections to being a hyper-billionaire. I don't need that much fucking money. I don't like the idea of taking that much of my workers' efforts for myself. I certainly haven't fucking EARNED this money.

On Prime Earth, it'd never work out this way. But this is DC. I need that money. Lex isn't going to spend billions of dollars stockpiling emergency shelters, food, water, and medicine all over the country, and eventually the world, for when there's a huge disaster. Lex isn't going to pay for the Justice League's infrastructure and salaries. Lex isn't going to set up hospitals and clinics and homeless shelters and soup kitchens. Lex is gonna spend his money trying to kill Superman.

If I'm lucky, I can maybe convince the guy to use the results of trying to kill Superman in a useful manner. Superweapons to fight aliens and demons and shit are actually good things to have. I'd really like to get him to work with me for defense satellites and moonbases and a defense fleet, actually. The guy does want humanity to be safe, he just also wants humanity, and him specifically, to be ascendant.

But it's Lex. You can't trust the asshole. So I'd better be prepared to go it alone. And that means I need a shitload of money.

 

[ENDDRAGON]

What video games currently exist?

 

[2oclock]

I love the technobabble. Lots to unpack. With all the perks Batman is training for, maybe dipping into Spiderman style things like the webs would be convenient. Spider Bat. Though it does conflict with the Batman identity so it can be a stalled out path of progression. Also gonna have to see how training Robin turns out as a teacher and as a father.

 

[einargs]

I love stories with this kind of in depth tech analysis.

I also enjoyed the musings about Lex and wealth.

 

[Thiccc Shaedy]

This was such an interesting read... But, my brain FUCKING hurts! Like, I almost checked out in the first of the chapter cos all that nerd talk had me blue screen while also triggering my Science A Level PTSD.

Can't wait to see how far Bruce takes his company, though.

 

[griffithdelendaest]

Love how in-universe Linus Torvalds picked up the Ted Kaczynski mantle . All seriousness though, I'd take the L of living in the DC universe if it meant that I lived in a world where Microsoft didn't exist, got the jump on the internet and phones, and could just avoid the Ls that come with an internet driven by proprietary software and profits/ad-space.

 

[Wivk]

Tell me more about how he is going to save Gotham anally. Lol.

I like this fiction but I'm still not sure what it's even supposed to be. It's an insert with both modern and meta knowledge, but it's not supposed to be focusing on abusing that like in medieval uplifts or race for God hood type stories. It's a gamer fic with numbers that go up, but we are forewarned the numbers don't matter and will fade to the background soon. It's a rookie hero doing street level crime fighting, intending to go into high level super fights for the earth at some point. It's an empire management type story where he gathers talents to grow his wealth and expand his empire. It's a crafter story with alot of technobabble about how great the crafted stuff is...

Not only am I not sure where this is going, but worse, I'm not sure you are either. It's not bad to have any of these elements, entire stories have been made from each one. You don't want too many conflicting elements at once in the same story though or they won't mesh well. You will need too much focus on one at the expense of others, or get caught up flooding us with minute details that don't really matter while the plot is frozen in time for 3 chapters. That sort of thing, as well as losing motivation if people get mad later when the story goes from super hero to business magnate or whatever.

I don't mean to say you don't have the skill to pull it off. I am just worried about how ambitious it seems. I mean to friendly warn you early for your own good and the good of the story, not skeptically shit on what you are trying to do here op.

Maybe you are a genius and part of the story IS the conflict between all this stuff. Where the si laments that he doesn't have time to fully develop all these future plans, use metalknowledge to recruit all the super scientists before lex and keep them from going evil, build up the company and introduce new products, fight street level crime, found the justice league, and still be a happy healthy person. Maybe the whole point is the sacrifices he has to make to really become batman wtf do I know. It might be a masterpiece, I can tell you have the potential.

But from just this much it seems a tiny bit jumbled and each chapter reads more like a different story. Like one chapter he is an immortal cultivator fighting a sect that dishonored him and the next he is attending high school and in a love triangle.

 

[Nugar]

What video games currently exist?

Click to shrink...

It's 1997, so the hottest new pc game is Devlish, just released that Jan. On the console side, Epic Adventure VII has been dominating the markets.

Tell me more about how he is going to save Gotham anally. Lol.

I like this fiction but I'm still not sure what it's even supposed to be. It's an insert with both modern and meta knowledge, but it's not supposed to be focusing on abusing that like in medieval uplifts or race for God hood type stories. It's a gamer fic with numbers that go up, but we are forewarned the numbers don't matter and will fade to the background soon. It's a rookie hero doing street level crime fighting, intending to go into high level super fights for the earth at some point. It's an empire management type story where he gathers talents to grow his wealth and expand his empire. It's a crafter story with alot of technobabble about how great the crafted stuff is...

Not only am I not sure where this is going, but worse, I'm not sure you are either. It's not bad to have any of these elements, entire stories have been made from each one. You don't want too many conflicting elements at once in the same story though or they won't mesh well. You will need too much focus on one at the expense of others, or get caught up flooding us with minute details that don't really matter while the plot is frozen in time for 3 chapters. That sort of thing, as well as losing motivation if people get mad later when the story goes from super hero to business magnate or whatever.

I don't mean to say you don't have the skill to pull it off. I am just worried about how ambitious it seems. I mean to friendly warn you early for your own good and the good of the story, not skeptically shit on what you are trying to do here op.

Maybe you are a genius and part of the story IS the conflict between all this stuff. Where the si laments that he doesn't have time to fully develop all these future plans, use metalknowledge to recruit all the super scientists before lex and keep them from going evil, build up the company and introduce new products, fight street level crime, found the justice league, and still be a happy healthy person. Maybe the whole point is the sacrifices he has to make to really become batman wtf do I know. It might be a masterpiece, I can tell you have the potential.

But from just this much it seems a tiny bit jumbled and each chapter reads more like a different story. Like one chapter he is an immortal cultivator fighting a sect that dishonored him and the next he is attending high school and in a love triangle.

Click to shrink...

I see what you mean, and I share your concern, but I don't think it's quite that bad. This is Batman. You have a progression from punching muggers on the streets of gotham, to fighting theme rogues, to meeting Superman, to fending off an alien invasion with the help of heroes from all over, to desperately trying to avoid getting bodied by Darkseid. This story, for the immediate future, is concerned with step one and working up to facing the crime families. About the point he starts making headways with the mafia is when the first theme criminals start showing up, like Joker and others.

We're at the very beginning of the in universe equivalent of Batman, The Animated Series right now. Justice League isn't for a while. But he knows its coming, which is why he's worried about things like disaster relief.

 

[Deathwings]

It's 1997, so the hottest new pc game is Devlish, just released that Jan. On the console side, Epic Adventure VII has been dominating the markets.

Click to shrink...

That is some serious case of Bland-Name Product there, holy shit.

 

[ENDDRAGON]

I wonder if the MC will make some video games maybe FGO.

 

[Wivk]

I see what you mean, and I share your concern, but I don't think it's quite that bad. This is Batman. You have a progression

Click to shrink...

Batman by its nature has always had alot of different stuff going on, which is why I could not point at some thing and say, "why is that in there?" Or "that does not belong!" All that stuff has a place and can work together perfectly if handled with care. You understanding what I'm saying is reassuring already on its own.

It might be because there are only a few chapters that are only a few thousand words that makes a small problem seem larger than it is. Especially since they are the introductory ones, which no one expects to be flawlessly paced or perfectly toned.

 

[Nugar]

xxxxxxxxx


I woke up exactly eight hours later.

Filthy, and starving.

This is routine by now. Alfred has left a mug of warm English breakfast tea, a banana, and a pair of crisp, sweet apples. The banana is gone immediately while I start the daily basic exercise.

You can probably guess what it is. One hundred pushups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats. Then I finish off the tea, grab the apples, and do a 10km run around the estate while I eat them.

In actual training respects, it's terrible. Bodyweight workouts plateau, and that much activity on a normal human body, every day, doesn't give enough time for the body to heal. But this is a Charles atlas type world, and I'm a Gamer. It's only good for a few hundred XP split among Might, Endurance, and Body training, with a kind of hilarious bonus of 10 Grit XP.

That's actually pretty good for a workout that only takes me 40 minutes. It's consistent, and that's why I keep doing it. I can get higher XP per minute rates in burst training, like my shooting gallery routine, but then I have to have some sort of setup or recovery period, like the eight hours of sleep I needed to heal.

I don't actually sweat anymore, which is nice, but I'm still pretty grody by the time I make it to the mansion for a shit, shower, and shave.

There's no 'Grooming' skill, despite what classic tabletop Cyberpunk may have told you. Instead, it falls under 'Disguise'. I'm disguising myself as a well-groomed person. I'm actually pretty good at it.

Alfred has breakfast ready for me when I finally hit the dining room at 3:20 in the afternoon.


xxxxxxxxx


"Breakfast, Master Bruce," Alfred announces, bringing in plates on a literal silver tray.

It's a full English breakfast with a quirk. Sausage, back bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, blood pudding, and, the quirk, spiced Mexican black beans on fried bread. One of my perks, a Might perk called 'It's Mostly Diet' actually approves of this massive load of protein and fat. My healing is magical, but it ain't free. The perk gives me a continual running sense of what my body needs in terms of nutrients and fuel.

I got him to switch to black beans because they're my favorite, and navy beans are my second most disliked. Seriously, I only prefer them to kidney beans, which I loathe. Black beans and butterbeans or lima beans are where it's at. Also, if you've never had it, though, back bacon is amazing. Like a little pork chop instead of a crispy meat cinder.

As I tucked into the food, Alfred brought out a folder. "And, as requested, a full write-up on all of the known and likely attendees for the charity gala. We have replies from four of the people on your 'Yellow List', with two more likely to gatecrash."

"Mrs. Brathwaite didn't give us any trouble, did she?" I asked while cutting up a bit of blood pudding. Really, it's like a spongy sausage kind of thing rather than what I consider pudding, but oh well.

"No, she was positively delighted to have so much control. Her husband's fortunes have waned a bit in recent years, and she only threw four Significant Events so far this year. With our bankroll, and a bit of investing advice, she'll be a solid ally in the future. She's already promised VIP status for any of her soirees, and she assures me she'll have you invited to every event of real importance, and as many of the others as she can."

I shook my head. "I'd literally rather be shot at than go to a single one of these hoity toity… eh." I had to cut myself off. Generally, my merged memories of Bruce Wayne make it easy for me to keep in character, but my lingering low class contempt for the rich nearly had me say 'circle-jerk' to Alfred's face.

The old butler smiled sardonically. He knew my opinion of ostentatious displays of wealth, but he also knew I knew they were necessary at times.

I took a sip of tea and sighed. "So how much is this costing, compared to the actual amount donated?"

He shook his head. "Well, we won't have official numbers from the guest donations for a while, of course. Most donations will be done at the gala next Friday. In terms of what you've decided to spend on the actual needy, it certainly could be worse, but it's not good. Madam Brathwaite has spent just over fifty three percent more on the event."

I did not choke. I don't think I can choke anymore. I'm also too refined and composed (now) to do anything so crass as a spit-take.

Instead, I carefully sat my fork and knife down.

I hesitated.

Then I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.

"We're spending ten million dollars on new shelters and free clinics."

"An accurate sum, Master Bruce," he agreed.

"She's spent more than five million dollars on this shindig."

"Also accurate, Master Bruce."

I groaned. Five million dollars. Five fucking million dollars, all to add Rolexes and diamond rings to the hands of the circle jerk.

"As Sir has informed me, in addition to your time experiencing the professional lives of your alternate selves, you spent considerable time in the head of your younger selves, enduring poverty and privation as you traveled and trained. Five million is indeed a considerable sum for a single event, but not outrageous, not at the economic level you now enjoy. Also, this is your introduction to the high society of Gotham. Mrs. Brathwaite understands that. It simply must be beyond extravagant."

I sighed again and resumed eating. "Yes, I agreed with you to give her an unlimited budget. I was just caught up in old modes of thinking. I was prepared for a million. I'd have flinched at two. I was not expecting five."

"Much of the budget was spent on the location. We bought out the entire Gotham Royal, with guests offered a complimentary room with invite. The entertainment was also a significant portion, with traveling theater, circus, and musical groups from around the world entertaining throughout the evening and night. Themed dinner courses and gift bags are also included. It adds up quickly."

Alfred was right. This was my big Gotham debut as Bruce Wayne. As Batman I can work quietly, learning and building a sturdy foundation with which to change Gotham. But if I want to be able to bribe, I mean, generously donate to, politicians and administrators and other influential Gothamites, I need to be seen. I need to have a presence.

So the story, at least for the public, is that troubled young Bruce Wayne took time to find himself. Colleges overseas, traveling, Zen masters and mountain climbing. Sherpas and yurts and backpacking across Europe.

Now I'm an adult, and ready to take over the family business, with a focus on Gotham. So this gala is themed with various places I've supposedly been, some true, some not. We've got Chinese acrobats, Indian dance theater, fire eaters and piano solos and an entire orchestra. The gift bags include exotic knickknacks, fine chocolates, scarves, and gift certificates to spas in other countries.

I'm giving tens of thousands of dollars of useless shit to rich people who don't need it, won't appreciate it, and could buy it themselves if they wanted it.

Being wealthy is weird.

"There's only one issue you must address before next week," Alfred continued.

"Oh?"

"You need a date."

I frowned. "I thought Mrs. Brathwaite was setting me up with some socialite through a web of favors."

"The young miss Osana Orlov is, unfortunately, out of town. Apparently, she and her new boyfriend decided to go skiing in Switzerland. The backup choice, one Karen Holt, nee Baard, is currently married. A quiet elopement which flew quite under the radar. It will be a minor scandal once everyone has time to focus on it. I recommend dropping a bon mot about it at the gala. And the backup to the backup, Michelle Yavin, simply declined."

"Are you telling me there aren't any more single vapid socialites of the right age in the region?" I asked incredulously.

Alfred gave me a look. "It's not so simple, Master Bruce. While there are quite a few young ladies who would superficially fit the description, most are involved with some social, business, or in far too many cases, crime factions. To take one on a date would be, at best, an opportunity for a group to extort influence from you, and at worse, a declaration of alliance."

Ah.

"No, I'm afraid you're going to need to find a suitably attractive young lady not currently involved in Gotham high society. Even mid-society would be risking it."

Huh. Alright.

I finished my meal, and while Alfred cleared the plates, I picked up the daily papers, which he'd also delivered with the folder.

The Gotham Times was as schizoid as the rest of the city. A mix of insightful, dedicated reporting, and sheer fucking trash. I skimmed it, since nothing big had happened. Sadly, Vickie Vale was not yet a writer for the paper, and instead was currently finishing up her journalism degree.

It was weird being so early in the Batman timeline.

The other paper I read daily was the Metropolis Daily Planet. One, it was generally a good idea to keep an eye on Lex Luthor, whose company, Lexcorp, had surpassed Waynetech's market cap last year. Two, Clark Kent and Lois Lane were noted members of the staff. I read their articles every time.

Superman has been active for two years already. One year longer than I've been in this universe.

I want to know more about the guy. Superman is always either Earth's greatest champion, or, occasionally, it's worst fucking villain. I really, really, really sympathize with the general paranoia Batman has.

It's really easy to look at his obsessive-compulsive plans to deal with Superman, Wonder Woman, and other heroes and think, 'Wow, that's just silly.' Because they're heroes, and generally, when they do seem to have turned into villains, it's just some other villain's plot, or a misunderstanding, or something stupid.

But I'm dealing with the multiverse, here. Injustice is a thing that happened in one of the universes. Actually, given how infinity works, it happened an infinite number of times, just a smaller infinite than the infinity of worlds where Superman is always a hero. So, as shitty as it is, I have to prepare contingency plans.

I have a chunk of green kryptonite, sourced from Smallville. I've also lead-lined the Batcave and portions of the rest of the estate.

Also, I need to meet the guy. But I feel like I should establish myself as Batman first. A meeting of peers, rather than the superhero and some doofus in a cape. So until then, I'll just quietly keep an eye on him.

With the papers done, I speedread the documents in the folder. Actually, I speed-read everything. I have a perk for it. So far, it's been one of the most advantageous perks I've gotten, because, while I can't instantly absorb a book and get a skill point for it like some Gamer systems, I do get XP while I read.

A really comprehensive and long 'How To' book can carry me from level 0 to level five, and only take about thirty minutes to read. High skill level books for professionals are also valuable, but I usually only get one or two levels from them, and then only if my skill level is less than 15. There's only so much you can learn without practice, even with a Gamer system.

But I digress. Thanks to Alfred's diligence, and the former intelligence agent knows how to put together a dossier, I'm now prepared for meeting the bigwigs at the gala.

Except for a date.

Shit.

I Gendo posed for a bit, considering the problem, my thoughts chasing each other like rats on a wheel.

Fortunately, Alfred interrupted me.

"Ah, Master Bruce. I've just been informed that the workers have finished the stone path to the cottage and are wrapping up. If you've the time, the foreman requests you take a look and sign off on the task."

I perked up. "That sounds excellent, Alfred. Will you come, too?"

He considered it, then nodded. "I suppose I will."

x
x
x

AN: Got sick, had some bad days this past week. Sorry for the delay. Chapter four was also almost twice the size of this one. I always seem to bobble a bit with length when I first start a story. There's advanced chapters of this, Ice Pie, and some other brand new stuff on my Patreon. As mentioned, health issues mean I can't promise a rigid schedule. But I AM writing as much as I can. Your support means everything!

https://www.patreon.com/Nugar

 

[Rehcra]

This is labeled chapter 4

 

[Nugar]

This is labeled chapter 4

Click to shrink...

I made that mistake across all three sites. Fixed.

 

[einargs]

I Gendo posed for a bit, considering the problem, my thoughts chasing each other like rats on a wheel.

Fortunately, Alfred interrupted me.

"Ah, Master Bruce. I've just been informed that the workers have finished the stone path to the cottage and are wrapping up. If you've the time, the foreman requests you take a look and sign off on the task."

Click to shrink...

Transition made me suspect he's going to meet his date while inspecting the path.

I like the reason he needs someone unrelated to high society.

 

[Nicohals J Westerberg]

Nice

 

[Hylas_Daemonem]

Mundane Clark Kent would be fun to meet.

Hmm, who to bring on a date with Batman?

 

[Lillie Jones]

Who is Bruce Wayne Si date going to be at the Gotham gala , society debut?
Along Bruce with the meeting with mundane Clark Kent and Lois lane at the party of the titular "Lois & Clark "duo, should be interesting interaction
Besides, A good candidate for Bruce Wayne Si date might just show up on the him inspecting path.
As I get what new Bruce Wayne is feeling though suddenly going from minimum wage money to having more than you could spend and still only touching the tip of the iceberg of all those coffers and he still has trouble adjusting to his new found wealth status, boggles the mind for ordinary people , even Bruce spend most on it on Bat technology and his Bat suit and still building up the titular Batcave.
Continue on
Cheers!