20 Chapter 20: Goodbyes are not Forever
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"Losing people is a part of life, but that doesn't mean you stop letting them in."
—Batman, (The Lego Movie)
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"Helena! I can't believe you're leaving. It won't be the same without you." Vicki said as she rushed forward and enveloped Helena in a tight hug.
"I'll miss you too, Vicki. You were a good friend." Helena hugged her back.
Bruce, Vicki, Selina, and Alfred had come to drop Helena and her uncle at the airport.
The bustling airport was filled with travelers hurrying to catch their flights. Among them, Helena stood with watery eyes at the entrance, her little suitcase beside her, as Bruce, Selina, and Vicki were standing before her, unwilling to let their friend go while Alfred was having a conversation with her uncle. Those two had also become good friends due to both their tempers being similar, they were both gentlemen. The very air seemed heavy with a mixture of sadness and gloom.
"Helena, we want you to know that we'll always be here for you, no matter the distance. You will always have a friend in us." Bruce said as he stepped forward, his voice filled with determination.
Bruce had wanted to be selfish and just keep Helena with him in Gotham. He had enough money to look after her but the question was could he really keep her safe? In a world where Kryptonians could not keep their own wife and unborn baby safe, what chance did he have at this stage, when he was just a child?
Maybe in the future, he would be powerful enough to not care about minor gangs and silly psychos with retarded senses of fashion but right now, he couldn't do that, he couldn't be selfish. No matter how much he just wanted to say 'fck off' to the plot and this world and keep Helena with her, he couldn't do it, at least not when he was still so weak.
"Absolutely, Helena. We'll call each other every day and keep you updated on everything happening here. You won't be alone." Selina nodded at Bruce's words, her eyes shining with sincerity.
"And we'll plan all the adventures we'll have when you come back! The three of us, together again." Vicki chimed in, her voice filled with anticipation.
"That sounds amazing, Vicki. I'll look forward to that." Helena said with a small smile.
"Remember, Helena, we'll always be just a phone call away. And if you ever need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to reach out." Bruce said as he took Helena's hand offering support and comfort.
"Helena the flight's on time. We have to go or we will miss it. We have to say our final goodbyes for now." Helena's uncle said as he lightly placed his hand on her shoulder.
"...Yeah." Helena's eyes were filled with tears. She had already lost her entire family in one fell swoop. She didn't want to let go of her friends so soon as well.
"But it's not goodbye forever, Helena. We'll see each other again. We promise." Vicki said as she was pulled in for a hug by Helena along with the rest of the gang.
It was a weird sensation for Bruce. This was his first time in a group hug. But he liked it. It felt like home, it felt like family.
"Thank you, guys. You've made this a lot easier for me to bear." Helena said as she wiped away her tears.
She then proceeded to give Bruce one final hug before leaving.
"Thank you for everything that you did for me. I promise that I will always keep your secret and that I will pay you back one day... Thank you." She whispered.
Bruce didn't understand if she was talking about him saving her life or him letting her stay at his home for the last three days or him killing the ones who killed her family. But he didn't care even if she did tell people. It was not that he blindly trusted her or anything. It was simply because nobody would believe her.
An eight-year-old orphan boy invented a state-of-the-art high-tech drone that is more advanced technology than anything currently on Earth and he used it to save his friend and kill her family's gangster murderers using a home-developed artificial poison that kills people by making them mummies. Yeah, best of luck in making the cops and the press believe that.
"What I did wasn't a favor. What I did was simply to help one of my best friends. And THANK YOU for being my friend, Helena. Take care of yourself." Bruce smiled at him.
"Goodbye, my dear Gotham Knights. Until we meet again." Helena said with a smile as she with a heavy but hopeful heart went into the airport with her uncle, slowly disappearing into the crowd.
For some time after the two left, Bruce just stood there in silence, thinking about something, wondering if it was a coincidence that Helena had called them the Gotham Knights before leaving or did the universe itself wanted to tell him something.
"She'll be alright, won't she? We'll make sure she is." Vicki said worriedly.
"Yeah. Helena is strong, and we'll be there for her every step of the way. We will support her from here as much as we can." Selina said while wiping her residual tears.
"She will be alright. She is our friend after all. And as for her safety, I pray for anyone who tries to ever do anything to her." Bruce gave a small smile whose meaning none of the people standing near him understood.
Only he knew what he meant. Only he knew that before Helena left, he had given her a little farewell gift. He had given her his favorite and greatest creation till now, a bat-tool.
The entire last week, he had made one specifically for her. A slightly different version of the bat tool he made for himself. This one leaned towards protection and defense more than versatile tools. He was sure that if Helena could one day master it, then she could even defeat a lot of dangerous metahumans out there.
Of course, he made sure to include more security features to make sure that it doesn't fall into the hands of some evil genius. But the best thing about her particular version of the bat-tool was that it could even change its appearance into a girl's purse making it blend into a normal environment and easily pass through any scanner.
"Let's go. It's getting late." Bruce said after some time of silently standing in front of the airport. He had already noticed a couple of people pointing at him and whispering. He knew it would not be long before this place is completely swarmed by reporters.
So with heavy hearts, the trio along with Alfred who also looked somewhat down went towards their car. It was time for them to return to their normal lives again.
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"Master Bruce, here's your snacks and the documents you requested. The folder contains all the information about the three companies that we acquired recently as well as the smaller companies that you wanted to invest in through the foundation. I have also started making deals for the filming rights of various books and comics that you told me under Wayne Entertainment." Alfred said as he placed a tray of food and a thick folder on the table.
"Oh, goody. Continue buying the filming rights of all the literary works I mentioned. I'll make sure to prepare a couple of dozen songs as well as some tv and movie scripts. Making the other two companies succeed will be easy due to my skills but the entertainment company would have to be handled very delicately." Bruce nodded as he continued working on a weird-looking helmet.
Bruce had plans for his technology company. Making money through it would be the easiest since all he had to do was just release a few of his designs to the public every year as products and voila, his company would be the most advanced and famous technology company in the world. Even companies like Apple or Tesla would be nothing in front of Wayne Technologies.
Same with Wayne Capital. Cortana was already making various ai programs for doing successful short trades in the share market to make quick money as well as shortlisting ventures and startups that had the most chances of succeeding using countless real-world simulations. That coupled with the knowledge from Bruce's previous world would almost make it a certainty that Wayne Capital would succeed and would soon become the biggest investment company in the world.
But Wayne's entertainment was different. Bruce could easily make it one of the biggest entertainment companies as well by making all the movies and shows he knew from his previous life but he didn't have enough time to start writing scripts to make. He would earn and profit way more by using his time to make state-of-the-art technologies than by writing manga, comics, or movie scripts.
All he could do was buy some franchisees that he knew would succeed in the future, hire the best directors and producers, and make sure that the shows or movies have a decent storyline. But that was it. He was mostly pinning his hope on Cortana who had supposedly cracked the formula for making hit storylines.
According to her, she had analyzed thousands of successful stories, and she used that information to develop a formula that she could apply to effortlessly influence people through her stories and make sure that every one of her scripts succeeds as a film or show as long as it's made well.
Truthfully Bruce doubted that because he knew how varied the human race was and how their opinions differed. So, he was going to do what he could do and develop some high-tech machines and programs as well through Wayne Technologies to make visual and audio effects in movies a hundred times better than what was possible in this era. That would be the defining point of how the products of his studio would be different from the others.
In reality, he could even make an entire movie at his home, simulating everything through his computer with the help of Cortana without any need for shooting in the first place but that would raise too many questions like who are the actors in the movie or where and when was it shot, stuff like that. So he was just going to provide as much help as he can to his studios' employees for them to make their best stuff for the people to see and enjoy.
'Perhaps I could start the Marvel franchisee here. I already checked Marvel doesn't exist in this world for some reason, so it could potentially make me a lot of money but if this multiverse is somehow connected to Marvel for some reason, then it could create a lot of chaos.' Bruce thought to himself.
"Sure master Bruce. Also, I know a certain person in Wayne Enterprises who might further help us in our business dealings since I am not really that bright in running a business and you young master need a business mentor to learn how to successfully run a business empire." Alfred said.
Bruce was sure he didn't need a mentor since he didn't intend to actually run the business himself. He just wanted to successfully grow his business big and powerful enough for him to never get into money problems. He even had plans to just sit back and enjoy his money rolling in after all his companies are big and strong enough. But he didn't say that to Alfred. Alfred had really big expectations of him and he didn't want to break his hope so soon.
"Sure, Alfred. Who is this mentor that even you look up to?" Bruce asked trying to show some curiosity.
"Lucius Fox. He is one of the board members of Wayne Enterprises, one of the very few who is still loyal to the Wayne family and supports your claim on the company. He couldn't attend the funeral because he was more or less broken after your parents' deaths since they were best friends. But I am sure that if you ask him to join your new company, he would do it in a heartbeat." Alfred said with a sad look on his face, probably having some flashbacks about Bruce's parents and Lucius.
"Fine. Then request him to join Wayne Solutions. By the way, that's the name I have decided to name the holding company. The three subsidiaries as well as all the companies I would acquire or start personally in the future would be under it. I don't have enough time to be the acting CEO anyway and will be taking up the chairman position, so maybe he could make for a good CEO." Bruce made his intentions clear.
He had even thought he could merge Wayne Solutions with Wayne Enterprises later down the line when he becomes an adult. He was sure that the moment he turned eighteen would be the end of most of the members of the board of directors in his company. He was going to make sure that he not only took back control of Wayne Enterprises but also ruin the lives of everyone who opposed him.
Alfred looked like he was a little displeased with Bruce's decision and wanted to say something but he ultimately didn't. Perhaps he remembered that despite Bruce's maturity and high intellect, he was still an eight-year-old kid and eight-year-old kids don't really make very intimidating CEOs. So perhaps making Lucius Fox the CEO would be a good move.
"Fine, I'll inform him then. It is extremely important that this new venture of yours succeeds Master Bruce. That would win us the trust of the general public shareholders and make it much easier to take control of Wayne Enterprises in the future when you turn into an adult, even if the board still opposes us." Alfred said with an air of seriousness.
"Don't worry Alfred. Bruce Wayne doesn't fail. He might get slowed down but he never fails." Bruce smiled while feeling a little weird for talking about himself in the third person.
'Maybe, it wasn't that easy being Bruce Wayne after all.' He thought.
"Oh, and your new combat teacher contacted me. He said that he would be coming tomorrow to start your training. Although he has certain conditions before he starts teaching you. He will only train you if you agree to them. But make sure they are not anything too extreme Master Bruce. You never know with people noways, lots of weirdos out there." Alfred said with a frown like he was imagining Richard Dragon as a pedophile.
"I am sure his conditions won't be too extreme Alfred. And if they are, we can always just get another teacher. Anyways, what about the other person I told you about? Did you find anything about him?" Bruce asked.
"You mean Slade Wilson? Yeah, I did. He is currently posted as a soldier in Iraq." Alfred revealed.
"Oh, that's a bummer. I was thinking about hiring him to be my armed combat trainer. I guess I can do it after he retires." Bruce showed a sad expression but inside he knew it would not be long before Slade Wilson stops working for the military to become a hitman, the best god-damn hitman out there.
And that would be the moment when Bruce would snatch him up to be his trainer. he was sure someone like Slade would never say no to a couple of million dollars when offered nicely.
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