Bruce Wayne

Chapter 41: Batman

Bruce shoved his feet into the armored boots. He secured a utility belt around his waist before putting away in the specialized pockets all the equipment he'd be carrying, the sharpened and unsharpened batarangs, a few smoke bombs, the grappler gun, a set of lock picks, wire cutters, a few tools for bypassing security systems, a reel of cable, and the explosive gel dispenser.

His hands were encased in protective gloves, and protruding from the exterior of each forearm were three metal hooks, angled backwards toward his elbows. Combined with the ablative armor of his sleeves, the hooks would allow him to deflect or snare blades in close combat without risking his hands.  The black fabric was deceptively simple in appearance, but it had been crafted from the specialized material at Wayne Enterprises, making it more than up to the job of protecting Bruce from harm.

Lucius had also come through with the gliding cape, and Bruce draped it from his shoulders. The bottom edge of the material narrowed in several locations to a point, so when the cape flared outward, the scalloped edge better resembled the shape of bat wings.

Attached to the top of the cape was a cowl. As Bruce pulled it up over his head, it covered everything on the upper half of his face except his eyes. The top portion of the cowl had been molded and was rigid, giving Bruce's facial features a more defined and fearsome appearance. A pair of pointed bat ears rose from the top of the cowl on either side of his head; hidden inside them were enhanced microphones for eavesdropping on criminals as well as a complex communication system to allow Bruce contact with either Alfred or Lucius without needing the microphone and earpiece he'd been using.

Bruce had asked for the cowl to be scary as the criminals he attacked from the shadows would only get the briefest of looks before he took them down, and the glimpse needed to be the stuff of nightmares. The way Alfred involuntarily flinched when Bruce turned around and revealed the completed costume told Bruce Lucius had hit the mark Bruce wanted. The entire suit was solid black with the exception of a gray bat symbol across his muscular chest. The symbol matched perfectly the design of the batarangs Alfred had put together.

"Do you have that list of targets?" Bruce asked.  A small device resting against his throat altered his voice, making it sound robotic.

"Yes sir," Alfred said after a momentary hesitation as he collected himself.

"Transmit it to me when I get out there," Bruce instructed.

He fired the grapple up to a support beam he'd installed horizontally near the top of the crevice providing the transition between the cave and the outside world. He was dragged upward and was able to easily pull himself onto the beam. He released the grapple in passing and put it away, his intensive practice made it look effortless.

Taking hold of the edges of his cape, Bruce used the miniature electrodes in his gloves to activate the special ability of the fabric. The cape was constructed from memory cloth. It was indistinguishable from ordinary material until electrically charged, making certain portions become more rigid and form the frame of his glider.

Jumping off the beam, Bruce soared out of the cave, diving then swooping upward to gain height and momentum. His lengthy hours practicing in a wind tunnel were paying off. Banking to the right, he adjusted the angle of his glide across the night sky and headed for the nearest bridge. On his augmented reality display of his optical lenses, a scrolling window of incoming data appeared in transparent green, hovering in front of him on the left and listing off the various criminal locations Alfred had selected as possible candidates for Bruce to take down.

When he approached the bridge, Bruce tightened the cape around him to dive down. The wind whipped past him as he plummeted toward the dark waters. Spreading his arms wide, he flared out his cape to catch the wind, soaring upward and gaining height. His momentum gradually faded as gravity worked against him. As he neared the end of his flight path, an instant before he entered free fall, Bruce let go of the cape and pulled out his grappler, firing a quick shot toward the top of the bridge. Without the cape to support him, Bruce started to fall, but the grappler hooked on the bridge and dragged him back up. He found a perch atop a steel girder, the wind causing his cape to billow out behind him.