Second Chances: Batwoman

Chapter 6

"Okay I have so many questions." Luke said as he saw the tower after Kate dropped him off there before going out to get drinks with Kara and he couldn't believe just how advanced it was.

"Yes, this place may be the most advanced facility on the planet, aside from the Fortress of Solitude of course, but then again, the Fortress only has Kryptonian technology, while J'onn and I combined the technologies of several different races, including human, Kryptonian, Daxamite, Martian and Coluan." Brainy said as he walked up to him.

"You must be Brainiac Five." Luke said as he held out of his hand to the alien he'd heard was a 12th level intellect, whatever that meant.

"I am and you are Luke Fox, head of R&D at Wayne Enterprises, faithful sidekick and tech support of Batman and Batwoman and one of the greatest minds of this time." Brainy said, choosing to leave certain aspects of Luke's future out, since he wasn't going to reveal that particular detail out.

"You know who I am?" Luke asked and Brainy chuckled.

"Considering the fact that your technology is one of the foundations of technology in the 31st Century, yes, I know who you are." Brainy said.

"Wait, are you serious?" Luke asked in shock.

"I shouldn't have told you that. But anyways, I'm assuming that you're not just here because Kate dumped you to go get drinks with Kara, or even just because you wanted to watch me upgrade Kate's suit, which isn't necessary, since I've already made her a brand new one out of the same nanite technology I used to create Kara's suit. So, how can I be of service?" Brainy said as Luke pulled a usb drive out of his pocket, since he hadn't even told Kate about this.

"Whatever is on this drive is said to be my dad's greatest creation, but he never got around to building it while he was still alive and he encrypted it in a way that I can't find a way to crack and I've been trying to for the past 6 months. But I figured that considering how smart you must be, you should be able to crack it. I'm hoping that if you can crack this drive, I'll finally be able to build my father's last design." Luke said as Brainy took the drive in his hands.

"Hmm, interesting. Whatever your father put on this drive, he clearly went to great lengths to keep secured. But I doubt that he took 12th level intellect from the future into account." Brainy said, though he had his suspicions as he hooked the drive into the Tower's main computer and began running his own personal decryption program, combined with his technopathic powers, to decrypt the drive and he had to admit, Lucius Fox really was as smart as people thought, since this was one of the most advanced encryptions he'd ever seen in the 21st century.

"Your father truly was a genius, since this is the first time I've encountered a program that's dated from the 21st century that I'm having any kind of difficulties cracking." Brainy said as he continued trying to crack in.

"What's going on?" Luke asked.

"However your father encrypted this drive, he managed to design it so that it could evolve and adapt to any unauthorized attempts to access it. It's adapting faster than any program I've ever seen in this century." Brainy said.

"Does that mean you can't crack it?" Luke asked, surprised.

"I'm insulted you asked that. There's no technology I can't crack. It's just more complicated than I expected." Brainy said as he began analyzing the patterns of how the drive was blocking his attempts to activate it and realized that they were forming some kind of coded language.

"I think I'm close to cracking it." Brainy said after about 15 minutes, currently focusing on keeping the algorithm from shifting.

"What do you need?" Luke asked.

"Something is causing the code to keep shifting itself, but every shift in the code revolves around the same nine character code. I'm currently attempting to keep the code from shifting any further while also trying to identify which of the possible 3265920 combinations is the code needed to unlock the drive and I'm assuming that your father would never just use some random number. It would need to be something important to him." Brainy said and Luke nodded, since that sounded right for his father.

"Wait, you said it was a nine digit number right?" Luke asked and Brainy nodded.

"Try my social security number." Luke said and Brainy nodded as Luke gave him the number and sure enough, that finally cracked the data as new designs started popping up.

"My dad went through all this trouble just to keep the plans for the batsuit secret?" Luke asked, not noticing Brainy's grin, since he knew what the designs really were, since while these were plans for a batsuit, they weren't for the one Lucius Fox made for Bruce Wayne.

"Actually, I don't think this is the original Batsuit, considering what else I've found on the drive." Brainy said as he brought up crayon drawn images that had also been on the drive.

"Wait, these are my drawings. I made them when I was kid, since I thought that it might be cool if there was a black batman." Luke said as Brainy smiled.

"Well, considering the number of similarities there are between your drawings and these plans, I think that your father spent years turning that dream into reality, though he was killed before he got a chance to give it to you." Brainy said as Luke was shocked by that.

"I wish I could thank him." Luke said, trying to keep tears from coming to his eyes.

"Tell me what?" a voice that Luke never thought he'd hear again said.

"Dad, is that you?" Luke asked.

"Not exactly." the voice said as the image of the screens shifted to that of an audio file.

"This is an artificial intelligence program created by your father to serve as a sort of instruction manual and guide for you in building and using this suit. Your father created me by mapping out his own brain patterns into an AI form. I possess all of Lucius Fox's knowledge and memories. I know I'm not the same thing as having your real father back, but I hope this is a good start." Ai said and Luke smiled.

"It is. My dad actually designed me a supersuit?" Luke asked.

"Yes. I always believed that you had the makings of a hero and he wanted to give you the tools you'd need to succeed." the Lucius AI said.

"I can't believe it." Luke said in shock as Brainy removed the drive and handed it back to Luke.

"I've already copied the designs for the suit to the Tower's database. I can get started on building it now if you'd like." Brainy said, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"I appreciate the offer, but this is something I need to build myself." Luke said.

"I understand. However, I will provide you with the same nanites I used to make Supergirl's suit and a new Batwoman suit for Kate, which I will give her when she arrives. I think you'll find them very helpful." Brainy said and Luke nodded.

"Thank you Brainy. For everything." Luke said as he and Brainy shook hands.

"My pleasure, though if you don't mind, I do have a few ideas of my own for a few additional modifications to the suit." Brainy said and Luke nodded as they continued talking.