29 Chapter 29: Deathstroke and Smallville

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"Everything has a beginning and an end. Life is just a cycle of starts and stops. There are ends we don't desire, but they're inevitable, we have to face them. It's what being human is all about."

– Jet Black, Cowboy Bebop

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A year is a long time. A lot of things can happen in a year. For Bruce, however, a year was too short and it passed by quicker than he could appreciate it.

For the last year, he had primarily been concentrating on his martial arts and chi training, trying to become DC's Iron Fist. However, even with the harshest training possible as well as the gene amplifier, his chi mastery was barely able to enter the level of Hamon of Jojo's Bizzare Adventures world, let alone try to coy Nen or chakra techniques with it.

That was after he tried to modify the meditation and breathing techniques that Richard taught him for chi in the image of Hamon's breathing technique as well as the breathing styles from Demon Slayer.

But it wasn't good enough as his current level of chi manipulation was neither as flashy as the other two nor as broken. He was sure he couldn't slash a rock with a normal sword nor could he make bubbles of acid through his superior chi manipulation.

But he still had hope. According to his theory, his chi would either improve with time as he grew up or it would become better as he made more and more improvements to his genetics using different serums.

Bruce had revealed his gene amplifier to Selina and Alfred as well after he concluded it was safe enough for them to use. Selina wanted to use it the moment she heard about it without even wanting to know what it exactly was just because Bruce had used it while Alfred just began to berate him about the side effects of artificial steroids.

However after Bruce made him understand what it truly was and how it functioned, he agreed to be injected with the gene amplifier. Bruce primarily injected him with it mainly because he wanted his first and most important and loyal henchman to always remain at the peak of what he could be. The English butler was too badass when he needed to be, so Bruce could not let him become weak with age.

Alfred was now quite ripped after taking the gene amplifier. He hadn't become a supersoldier but he had returned back to the peak of what his age would allow him to be making him seem like one chad of a butler.

Anyway, not everything that happened in his life the last year was all sunshine and rainbows. The most unfortunate thing that happened to him in the last year was that Richard's two years were up and he left after that bidding all of them a hearty goodbye.

But before leaving, Richard had a private conversation with Bruce not only telling him some of the most important lessons he had learned in his life but also giving him a clue that there was some large secret organization constantly monitoring him for some reason.

Bruce however wasn't too surprised by this. He had been expecting either the Court of Owls or the League of Assassins to be keeping an eye on him. In fact, he would have been quite surprised if nobody was keeping tabs on him.

However, that didn't mean he was going to let people walk all over him and wasn't gonna retort at all. No, he was doing his own monitoring as well, keeping tabs on certain people, most specifically keeping watch on the 'dirty' politicians and rich crime family members in Gotham using his drones and Cortana's digital algorithms. He had collected a lot of incriminating evidence against a lot of these people but hadn't given any of the information to the cops yet since he intended to use them later down the line to get 'favors' or good leverage material.

Also after Richard left, Bruce didn't waste any time and moved his sight to his next potential combat instructor, one who wouldn't focus on teaching him meditation or chi but how to instead use his skills to the maximum efficiency and fulfill his objective in any way possible, no matter what he had to do.

Yes, he was trying to get Deathstroke as his next combat instructor and that was the reason why Bruce was back in his living room 'interviewing' Slade Wilson right now.

"So, wait. You are telling me that my only job would be giving you and your 'family' protection from external threats and teaching you how to in your own words 'hunt' people down?" A man who looked like he was in his mid-forties with military-style hair and a chiseled body with multiple scars visible on various parts of his body asked with doubt in his eyes while sitting on a sofa opposite Bruce.

"Precisely yes. But you will have to teach me everything you know, Also you will need to defend me and my family from all the threats against us out there, no matter how severe." Bruce said as he made Deathstroke's expected duties clear to him.

"I see. Well, as exciting and adventurous as this new job sounds, I didn't quit the army to become a babysitter kid. So, my answer is going to be no. But I do wish you well and hope you can get a good teacher yourself to teach you the value of time and how not to waste it on famous mercenaries." Slade Wilson said as he stood up to leave.

He had in no way any desire to waste his time on training snotty-nosed children, so he directly refused and was preparing to leave but Bruce of course had other plans.

"Ten million dollars a month," Bruce uttered with a small smile on his lips.

"What did you just say?" Slade had to stop moving for a few seconds to register what Bruce said to him.

"You heard me. I know you quit the military because you thought that your skills would be better off being used in other places where they would be more appreciated than in the army. So the question is do you think ten million is enough appreciation or not?" Bruce asked as he looked at Slade in his eyes already knowing what the future number-one mercenary in the world would answer.

"You are ready to spend one hundred and twenty million dollars just to get training from me and receive my protection? People can hire armies with that amount of money, so why would you be giving it to me?" Slade said not being able to control his expression since he still hadn't become the experienced veterinary hitman he would become one day.

"Because I believe you are as good as any small mercenary company out there if not better. Also, my superpower is being rich." Bruce answered smugly, snickering at his own answer like it was some kind of inside joke.

"... Okay, I accept. You will be my protege from now on little Wayne. I will be your mentor... as long as you pay me that is." Slade said as he nodded his head and shook Bruce's hands at the deal.

And that was how Slade Wilson became Bruce's new trainer and bodyguard. He gladly kept his end of the deal. He took care of every possible threat around Bruce while teaching him and in extension Selina everything that the retired soldier possibly could unknowingly help in creating an unstoppable beast that even he would one day be wary of.

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"By the way, why are we going to Smallville Kansas for our school trip? Weren't there any better more educational or more fun places to visit than that? Hell, maybe even Metropolis would have been better than that boring old town." Vicki complained as she sat at the back of the school bus with Bruce and Selina.

"It's because a certain someone wanted to experience farms instead of enjoying elegant dining and wonderful shopping, Vicki," Selina muttered with some annoyance in her voice.

"Oh, come on. You two will enjoy it too. I am sure the place won't be as boring as you are imagining right now. Who knows, maybe you will even love the place by the time we return." Bruce said, not wanting to give an explanation on why he wanted to go there in the first place.

Bruce's life had become quite smooth since he started training under Slade. Unbelievably brutally harsh training like he was a masochist, continuous practice of chi in simulations, his constant study in serums and Bioware, and his research to make an atomic printer or a replicator from Star Trek, was the norm of his life.

So, a school trip was a welcome fresh change from his perspective. And imagine his surprise when one of the options for the school trip was Smallville. After seeing the name of that town, Bruce remembered that an all-powerful Kryptonian kid should be living there right now with his adoptive parents. Thus, Bruce being the rich asshole he was, had Alfred pull some strings and made Smallville the destination for their school trip that year.

This would make Bruce's job a lot easier. Not only would he get access to the DNA of a Kryptonian (for research purposes) in that town but also would be able to meet and judge the Clark Kent of this world for himself. Maybe even establish a relationship with him early on if everything went right. After all, he didn't want to waste his time by repeating the Superman vs. Batman events again just because of some misunderstanding between them.

He really wanted to avoid unnecessary and useless battles like those and hoped that he would be able to do exactly that in the future and that Superman or any other heroes wouldn't be dumb enough to fight him just because their 'ideals' don't match or something.

However, all of that would come down to what Clark Kent or Kal El of this world was like, what Superman, the beacon of hope of this world was truly like.

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