Chapter 77: Homecoming (2)

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"No matter how careful your risk hedging is, there will still be holes in your plan! Realizing them and ensuring they are promptly dealt with, is the duty of those who stand at the top."

– Reiji Akaba, (Yu-Gi-Oh)

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<(Bruce Wayne POV)> 

"Are you sure that you want to do this Bruce? I doubt these memories from 'his' mind's remnants have anything that can help you improve. According to what you have told me, 'he' might have one day become one of the most dangerous humans on the planet but that doesn't change the fact that this was his mind when he was just a nine-year-old. The advantages that you might get from the assimilation of his fractured mind are minuscule compared to the risks that would accompany it." Cortana voiced her concerns worriedly from her hologram form. 

Yeah, Cortana knew my biggest secret, well, at least parts of it. She knew about me not being the original Bruce Wayne and only inhabiting the body of Bruce but she didn't know exactly who or what I was. She didn't ask as well since she didn't need to know. However, as a truly smart AI, I knew that she had her own theories of which the current me being a product of some sort of split personality disorder due to the trauma of him being shot at an early age was her biggest guess.

Of course, I didn't try to correct her. It would have been better for me if she didn't know my truth at all. But I needed her to have at least an idea about who I truly was or in this case not, because she was going to be inside my mind a lot, and sooner or later she was going to know that I am not exactly who everyone thinks I am. At least at that time, she would not assume the worst about me like I was some form of evil spirit inhabiting Bruce Wayne's body or something. 

Plus she had absolute loyalty to me coded deep inside her. I was the reason for her existence. So she literally could never betray me by misusing that information somehow. Also, data like these had the highest level of confidentiality in her system, so no one would ever be able to access that data without the highest form of access required, something only I had.

"I know Cortana. But... it's still important that I do it. To both gain some closure to the previous Bruce's... death as well as to have a chance to improve my mindscape with his mind's remnants. Plus, imagine if you have a red button sitting in front of you for years and you have no idea what it does. Wouldn't you want to press it and see what happens just so that you could satisfy your curiosity?" I asked with a powerless shrug. 

"No. My algorithms value caution way too much to do that. My curiosity doesn't increase with time like that of humans. I simply decide on whether to press a button of an unknown function based on my knowledge about the characteristics of the button, its advantages and disadvantages." Cortana answered as a matter of fact. 

"... Well, I am your creator, so I know better than you. Now, just download those memories I am allowing you access to and help render and process them." I argued with a straight face as I put the amusphere on my head. 

"Also, make a copy of my present consciousness while you are at it. Worse comes to worst, I'll at least always have a replacement mind in store to put into my body in case I ever suffer a mind death or.... mind erasure or something else along those lines. I think I should also design a portable device that would make a copy of my mind and store it in a secure server every day to prevent situations like that." I said the last part more to myself as I wondered if I could make a Cortical Stack like in the Netflix show, Altered Carbon. 

Even Rick's mind-copying device in Rick and Morty paled in comparison to that particular piece of miraculous technology. 

"Baka" Cortana muttered in an overly exaggerated tone before focusing on extracting the fragmented memories of the original Bruce from my mind which I permitted by lowering my mental shields and allowing her entry into some of the limited parts of my mind.

"Targetted mind unit found" 

"Extraction process commencing in 3... 2... 1... Extraction started" 

"Time taken to complete extraction: 2 minutes, 55 seconds." 

Cortana began to continuously announce her updates in a monotone voice as she went through all the leftover data of the original Bruce Wayne's fragmented mind. 

Despite the machine accessing the deepest parts of my mind, I felt nothing except a little tingling sensation in my head like receiving a weird massage.

"Extraction Completed" 

"It's done. I have extracted all the splintered memories that you wanted me to. However, going through all those memories and processing them according to your requirements will take quite some time. I will most likely be able to complete the process in about 3 days 2 hours and 11 minutes." Cortana informed diligently. 

"Really? That's slow. I guess, I'll have to upgrade some of your servers to make them more compatible for them to directly deal with mental data as efficiently as they deal with normal electronic data." I pondered to myself as I prepared to work on improving Cortana's servers.

Making and upgrading computer servers was probably one of the easiest, yet one of the most strenuous jobs that I had to do, so I prepared myself for a very long night.

"By the way, I forgot to ask this but what about the current political landscape of the city? Has anything significant changed after I left for my training?" I asked since I had more or less zero idea about what was truly going on in Gotham's dirty underworld as I made it a point for Cortana to never disturb me during my training on Nanda Parbat.

"Nothing you already didn't predict. After Martha and Thomas Wayne died and you left all law and order went to hell. Although the situation between different organized crime groups has almost become stable, Gotham is now more or less a gutter teeming with crime and corruption. Latin American drug cartels, the Chinese Triads, the Yakuza, the Russian mafia groups, both new and old crime families like the Cosa Nostra or Maroni crime families as well as dozens upon dozens of small gangs have sprung up like mushrooms trying to leech on the city to feed their own selfish greed and hunger. However, the fastest-growing gangs among them would be the Intergang, the Sionis Crime family, and the Penguin gang. Although still small, they have the biggest growth rate among all the organized crime groups, at least in Gotham.

Intergang has mainly grown so strong because of its international presence and heavy funding but the Sionis family and the penguin gang are completely due to the merits of their founders. Roman Sionis also known as Black Mask who runs the Sionis crime family, formed his entire kingdom with his sharp wits and cunning making short work of almost anyone who dares to stand in his path. He also seems to have a grudge against you since he thinks that you stole his bank deal, thus slowing down his empire's growth. Oswald Cobblepot on the other hand is a very shrewd man who can turn almost every situation in his favor. His biggest power is his sharp mind and quick decision-making ability, unlike other leaders who use violence to maintain their reign.

Of course, there are also other small emerging groups like the Joker cult where people who are sympathetic towards a certain person who dressed and called himself the Joker killed himself on a live TV show. But they do not have any long-term plan, they just want to cause chaos and destruction instead of real organized crime. But of course, even among all these new forces the Falcone crime family has still somehow managed to keep its position as the strongest criminal organization." Cortana briefed with her hologram taking the form of a young blue-skinned secretary with glasses on her face while wearing a secretary dress 

"For more information, you can further refer to my detailed report on Gotham organized crime group. I even included pictures and graphs to explain the present situation of Gotham's underworld better to you." Cortana finished as a document folder opened on the massive screen of the Bat computer with a Hello Kitty sticker shaped like a bat on its title page.

"... Thank you for your help Cortana. That's a pretty cute-looking document. I am sure I am going to enjoy reading this... *Sigh* 3000-page report because of that." I sighed as I realized that I was going to be very busy for the next few days. I had to do a lot of things like make my new armor, finish the final upgrades on Cortana's servers to help her copy and store entire minds as digital copies, assimilate Bruce's old memories as well, and work on some new serums. Plus, I also always wanted a Bat-car, a Bat-plane, and perhaps even a Bat-cycle for myself one day, so I have to start working on that too.

'So much work. I think I am going to have a burnout just thinking about them.' I thought as I wiped away some of my fake tears. 

'But still the Joker gang, huh? It sounds like this universe is going to have multiple iterations of Joker, so I have to be careful. I am not going to underestimate someone like the Joker. All the iterations of the Jokers might not be the best fighters but they seriously know how to emotionally manipulate someone and mentally destroy them.' I thought grimly.

"TIGER, YOU ARE BACK. I MISSED YOUUUUU." A voice suddenly yelled out from behind me, surprising me for the first time in the last five years as a familiar figure embraced me from the back.

"Kitty, it seems that you have missed me a lot, haven't you? Well, I have certainly missed you... Wow, you have changed... a lot in the last couple of years." I spoke dumbfounded after I tried to turn around and hug her back.

The girl I had once known for all those years was gone, replaced by a woman who bore almost no resemblance to her. She was sporting a slender and curvy figure, clad in tight leather jeans and a skin-tight jacket that barely concealed her ample breasts because of how much the zipper was lowered. A pair of red goggles and a... strange cat mask further added to her mysterious allure. She looked like a character straight from a fantasy comic because of her unnatural beauty and seductive charm, perhaps a product of this world's heightened aesthetics for its heroes and villains.

[{Image}]

"Selina, are you just into cosplay and exhibitionism now or have you dressed in that costume to commit certain night activities that normal people should never commit in a town like Gotham?" My voice instantly turned serious as I ended the hug with a hardened face.

'Did Selina become a cat burglar and start stealing from people despite everything I did to make sure that she never had to experience such a life? Was this somehow destiny playing its predetermined course like it's supposed to? Was everything I did pointless? Also, how many people have seen that sexy hot body of hers in that costume? I needed to kill all of them to quell my jealousy.' 

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