It's an Enigma

Feeling the night breeze on his skin as he moved like a shadow through the alleys of New York refreshed Bruce and made him feel at home. Someone once told Bruce that Batman was the real Bruce Wayne, while Bruce Wayne was his mask. 

Even Bruce didn't know if this was true or not. At this moment, feeling the exhilaration of being part of the night once more, Bruce might be tempted to say that Batman is the truth of his existence. 

After searching the unfamiliar streets of New York, Bruce finally found his target. A man leaned against a dimmed streetlamp. Bruce moved close to him. He navigated around the light and kept to the shadows. 

From his utility belt, he took a short rectangular object with two prongs at the end. In one swift movement, he jumped and stuck the small Taser against the drug dealer's neck and pushed the button. 

The man knew he was in trouble the moment he felt the two prongs on his neck. How did the other person sneak up on him? This question flashed through his mind before he passed out. 

By the time gravity dragged him back to the ground, the drug dealer was unconscious.

Bruce reached down and took both the drugs and the money. The drugs he would dispose of later. The money he took was over $4,000. 

Bruce found plenty of people selling things at night. Some places were still open, but he preferred the private vendors. 

He bought a laptop, some warmer clothes, and a larger backpack. He also bought some warm food and after asking around, he found a place he could rent for the night. 

It was a no-tell motel and was pretty cheap. It smelled and the room was pretty small, but unlike most places, it didn't need a credit card. It also didn't care if you were 10 and rented a room. 

Bruce took out a few gadgets and secured the door and window. The TV looked like it was thirty years old. He took out some of his tools from the utility belt and got to work on the laptop. 

He bought additional tools for working on laptops. The first problem he had was that the programming languages in this Earth were similar to what he knew in his world, but the differences forced him to work at a slower pace. 

At this point, Bruce wanted more information, he needed to find a place to live in this city. New York was filled with crime and corruption, so it reminded him of home. 

He was curious about the superheroes in this place. He noticed an unusual number of heroes in and near New York. He looked up individual heroes, he found Iron Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Defenders, the X-Men, and others.

Iron Man was interesting, but given Tony Stark was some kind of Tech Wizard, he didn't take too close of a look. He only paid $800 for this laptop. He poked around in the X-men but found it had pretty impressive defenses. 

The Defenders didn't seem to have any presence on the internet. As far as he could tell it was just something random groups of superheroes called themselves from time to time. 

The Fantastic Four was his way to finding some of the secrets he was looking for. The leader of the team, Reed Richards, or Mister Fantastic, was the smartest man in the world but put zero effort into security. Most of the protection for the FF's systems was put in place by S.H.I.E.L.D., some kind of international super spy agency. 

The firewalls and security protocols hadn't been updated in a while. Mr. Fantastic's Password was SueStorm-Richards1. When Batman saw how easy it was to explore the FF's database and the types of things Reed invented, he wondered why the world wasn't in chaos. 

Batman wrote an anonymous letter to S.H.I.E.L.D. reminding them to update the FF's systems. That was after he copied all of the FF's files. Bruce unhooked his laptop and packed up. He walked out and saw a drugged-out man standing in the hallway drooling. 

Bruce brought him to his room, through the key to him, and closed the door. He left, quickly, and found access to a nearby roof to see how long it would take S.H.I.E.L.D. to show up. 

Their time wasn't bad, by the time he got comfortable on the roof, they had the motel surrounded and were searching through Bruce's former room. Bruce smiled. At least that man might get a decent meal. 

Bruce opened the laptop and looked at the material he copied from the FF. He pulled out a notebook, a pen, and a light. He spent the rest of the evening going through the database. When the sun peaked over the horizon, Bruce had finished his evening and left for breakfast. 

"What a strange world," He couldn't help but say as he left the rooftop.