Late Night Meeting

Later that night, or what most people would call morning by 9 am, Alfred was the only one moving around the house. The other members of the Gotham Knights were either sleeping in their room or out on patrol.

Alfred set up the table in his personal study. He put out several freshly cut fruits on a plate and set down two cups of tea.

The moment he was done, he turned around and smiled at the young woman that had just entered through the window.

"Miss Barbara. Thank you for joining me for breakfast this morning. It has been a while since I have had a good meal with a friend."

Barbara wasn't wearing her new Batgirl uniform but was dressed in civilian clothes. She sat in one of the chairs while Alfred sat across from her.

"Before we say anything else, I must say thank you for saving Master Bruce."

Barbara smiled shyly at Alfred. She could never be her usual headstrong self in front of him. He reminded her of her late grandfather with his kindness and the way it seemed like he knew everything.

'Maybe that really is Alfred's power.'

"No need to thank me, Alfred. I was simply in the area," Barbara smiled before her lips became flat "But Bruce won't be able to make it at this rate. None of them will. His stubbornness..."

"He is indeed risking his life. Even more than when he decided to dress up as a bat and fight criminals at night. But he hasn't reached it yet."

"Reached what?"

"His breaking point," Alfred admitted

Unlike in the original timeline, Bruce's greatest challenges as Batman never came to pass.

The Joker hadn't gone on a rampage that ended with Barbara paralyzed and Jim Gordon nearly broken nor did Jason Todd end up dying as his Robin. Bane never broke his back or outsmarted him. He had yet to be challenged.

And because of that, Batman had still yet to be proven wrong. So he would maintain his stubborn ways until something like that happened. Until someone close to him had to pay because of his mistakes.

Unknown to him, that was exactly what was about to happen.

---

On the Kujira, Jason and Rose had just finished running the latest round of tests for the Goufs. That last test was a live fire match against them.

In a match of 50 high-tech and highly armed borgs against two people who looked like they had a minimal amount of cybernetics in their bodies, the results of the match seemed obvious to everyone watching aboard the Kujira.

"Even if they are the bosses, there is a limit to what they can do. Especially against 50 fully kitted out guys."

"Agree. I hear that Rose has some powers but besides that, both of them are normal."

"And they are using live munitions in this fight! We might just be getting some new leadership when it is all over."

All of the lower-ranked members of Edgerunners thought that Jason and Rose were gonna get killed. The only exceptions to this were those that had gone on missions with Rose or those that had been able to see Jason's prototypes due to running errands for him.

As for the higher-ups, they all knew that this match would end in Jason and Rose's favor. The only question was how it would be done.

"Hacking into them?"

"Maybe but these guys are supposed to head out on the frontline. They should have better protection against that."

"True. And EMP shouldn't work since that is the obvious answer."

"Then knowing those two, that leaves the last option."

"Yep. Brute forcing it."

Just as they were thinking that, the match started. Jason and Rose disappeared from their starting position. Within moments, half of the Goufs were in the air and severely damaged.

After taking down half of them, both Jason and Rose deactivated their Sandevistans. The new versions Jason had put in them increased their speed by about 15 times and could last for 60 seconds. Just by relying on these, they could crush the Goufs easily but that would end the fight too quickly.

Jason and Rose stood in the middle of the crowd. Seeing their enemies suddenly appear before them, the Goufs raised their gun-shields and began unleashing hell on the pair.

Rose rushed through the bullets without activating her Sandevistan. Nothing touched the young woman. It was as if the Goufs were missing on purpose. Instead, she had become able to master her power and could use her precognition to see 3 seconds into the future.

Rose made sure that she moved exactly where she knew the shots would not be which caused many watching to think that this part of the training scenario was false.

By the time she made it to the other side, she had unsheathed both of her swords and began testing the Goufs shield and heatblade

On the other side, Jason didn't dodge any of the bullets. Instead, he rushed forward through the rain of bullets, each one bouncing off of his skin.

Over the past few months, Jason had not only given himself upgrades to his already owned cybernetics but also added more. Both of his legs were converted while his torso was given a set of dermal armor. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Jason was now leaning more toward being machine than man.

Once he closed the gap, Jason immediately began pounding on the Goufs with his bare hands. Even when their heat blades came crashing down on him, Jason would just knock them aside before caving in the Gouf's chest.

The ones above looked at the massacre that was unfolding before them. The highly anticipated supersoldiers they were hoping to one day become had been slaughtered by two people.

And they weren't even killed. While they were aiming to kill, the pair were able to handle them all while sparing their lives.

This was the strength of a King or Queen of Edgerunners.