DC: I am Bruce Wayne

Chapter 17: The Night of the Hunt (1)

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"'Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.'"

— E.B. White,  (Charlotte's Web)

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"When you guys told me that you live in a mansion, I didn't actually think that it was a real mansion. This is even bigger than my own house and our house is pretty big." Helena said with awe evident in her voice.

"Why thank you. I am glad that you like my humble abode." Bruce said while smiling. He too had the same expression on his face as Helena the first time he saw this manor after his transmigration.

"By the way Helena, how come your parents even allowed you to come here? I thought they were very strict and normally don't let you go to other people's homes." Vicky asked like a curious cat.

"I don't know. After I heard that you guys were going to play together here, I just asked my mother if I could come to play with you guys as well. I thought that she would just say 'no' like always but surprisingly she agreed to it. She even said that she would keep it a secret from my father and my other siblings." Helena said with a happy expression on her face.

"Great. Now, can we start playing? Bruce had a professional script writer prepare a special Dungeons and Dragons game for today.

"I really wanna play it so let's go," Selina said wanting to start the game as soon as possible.

She was a fellow Dungeons and Dragons fan like Bruce was in his previous life. Of course, it was Bruce who introduced it to her. Playing it just once with Alfred was all it took for her to get addicted to the game. She didn't like playing console games or PC games as much as she liked playing the board game. And she even always chose the rogue or thief class every time.

"Yeah let's go" Vicky shouted. She too wanted to play the game since she had never tried it before.

Alfred was the dungeon master for the game besides being the official snacks supplier as well. The entire game was quite an enjoyable experience for all four of them including Cortana who was introduced to Vicki and Helena as a friend living in Australia. Bruce had told them that Cortana would also play the game and converse with them through video calling. The girls really liked her on-screen avatar thinking that it was a real girl cutely sitting behind a computer talking with them. They became friends faster than Bruce could spell Top-g.

They played the game for about two hours and still, none of them got bored, they were that hooked. Vicky was a little slow at the game at first but under the expert tutelage of Bruce and Selina, she became quite good at it by the end. Helena who was playing as a ranger however was the hidden dragon among them. Her natural talent was barely beaten by Bruce's skills even though he had a lot more experience than her due to his previous life.

Cortana on the other hand didn't seem to try to do her best otherwise she could have probably beaten all of them very easily because of her capability of doing countless simulations inside her mind in seconds. She just took it slow and let others have their fun as well.

"It's getting late. I think I should go now. My mother would probably be angry if I didn't go back home in time." Helena said with a sad face, not wanting to stop playing or leave her friends.

"It's okay Helena. I think I should go back as well. My father would get worried too if I don't go back soon. Alfred, can you drop me at my home?" Vicki asked. Her father was the one who had dropped her here but she didn't want to pester him again to pick her up as well, so she asked Alfred.

"Of course Miss Vicki. It's my duty. Miss Helena, should I drop you as well?" Alfred looked at Helena.

"No, it's okay. My family driver is waiting for me outside." Helena politely refused him.

"By the way, thank you Bruce for the wonderful evening. I am glad that all of you guys are my friends, you too Cortana." Helena said after which she ran to her car parked outside.

Bruce couldn't help but smile at this. Although for some reason he seemed a little uncomfortable like he could feel that something bad was going to happen. His sixth sense or 'bat sense' was tingling.

Soon, Vicki also left with Alfred to go back to her home.

"That was enjoyable," Selina said with a small smile still visible on her lips as she watched the two cars slowly fading away in the distance.

"Yes, yes it was," Bruce said as the uneasy feeling still lingered within him for some reason.

"Bruce I have completed manufacturing ten initial units of each of the bat carrier drones as well as the generation-one combat drones you wanted. Should I continue to make the rest of the one hundred planned units of the two models?" Cortana asked from the screen.

She had not only been playing Dungeons and Dragons with all of them but was also assembling multiple drone units of Bruce's design using her newly made 'arms' that Bruce made for her in the Bat cave. Her new arms very much resembled the octopus arms that Dr. Octopus had in the MCU. They were extremely versatile and were the best possible design for assembling and other production purposes.

As for why she was making the drones, it was because Bruce simply did not have the time. He had designed one single unit for each of his current three models and had uploaded the details and the process to Cortana's database which she was now using to make multiple drones at an inhumane pace.

"No. Let's have a field test before you continue. I don't think we ever tested it outside the Wayne manor. Let's do it now. We can also see if there are any problems concerning limited range or reduced controllability or something." Bruce said as he started walking towards his cave.

He had already tested the initial drones he made with the analyzing power of his ability and hadn't found any problems with their designs but he wanted to be sure. Field tests are always the best ways to make sure that your machines will never malfunction in times of need.

"Wait, you are going to test out your drones? Can I come too?" Selina asked with pleading eyes.

"Yeah, sure Kitty." Bruce instantly agreed as he didn't keep his projects a big secret from Selina and Alfred. They knew about most of his inventions since they came into his cave whenever they wanted and Bruce never did anything to stop them. Why would he? One normally came to deliver him snacks and the other to talk and play with him.

He had always trusted Alfred as he knew that the butler would rather die than even think of harming or even betraying him. As for Selina, she might have the innate traits of a thief but he knew that she had never stolen anything from him after promising him that night. Also, he trusted her. She might be a wild cat for everyone else, but to him, she would always be his kitty.

"Let's start, take control of three units of each of the drones Cortana, and deploy them to the main city," Bruce ordered after he took his seat in front of his computer in his bat cave.

As soon as he ordered it, three high-tech-looking drones slowly floated up and went towards one of the exits of the cave that opened to a small artificial waterfall on the manor grounds.

Similarly, three bat bat-shaped objects which also had slight traits of an insect if looked closely enough began to flap their wings rhythmically and slowly floated up and went towards the same direction as the previous drone.

"Wow, the bats look so real. I mean the first type was also cool but the bat one was just too real looking." Selina said as she looked at the two drones flying away with amazed eyes.

"I know. That is what they are supposed to do, look as real as possible." Bruce said as he switched on the live footage of his drones on his computer's multiple screens.

"What do you wanna see Kitty? The combat drones can fly at the speed of two hundred and fifty kilometers per hour while the bat drones can reach one hundred and fifty kilometers at top speed. Their range also extends to about fifty kilometers in radius. So we can see everything everywhere in the entire city through these drones." Bruce proudly boasted about his creations.

"How about we visit Vicki and Helena's homes then? I think we can scare them with the bat drones." Selina said with an evil smile on her face which Bruce gladly returned.

"Good idea kitty. Why didn't I think of that? I can even make it seem like they are being haunted by invisible ghosts." Bruce said as he ordered Cortana to do it.

Cortana followed his orders while seriously questioning both Bruce's and Selina's maturity in her mind. Even she didn't expect her maker and friend to use state-of-the-art technology that governments would go to war for as pranking tools.

As one of the combat drones and bat drones reached each of the two girls' homes, Bruce got ready for pranking them. The plan was simple. He was gonna speak through the drones and scare them using weird scary noises. He might even use a drone to knock over things in their rooms if they didn't get scared easily.

"Come on, what are you waiting for? Let's scare them." Selina said excitedly.

"You heard her Cortana. Let's start Operation Boogeyman. Select Helena as the first target." Bruce said, using the first random name that came into his mind to name this prank.

The bat drone silently entered Helena's mansion through one of the open windows and began to search for her room. Soon, it found a room with a half-opened pink door looking like it belonged to a small girl or kid

The bat drone went towards the room slowly under Bruce's instructions, expecting the room to either belong to Helena or one of her siblings. Cortana made sure to fly the drone as silently and steadily as possible, so as not to alert the people inside the room of the upcoming prank.

However, the moment the full view of the room appeared on the computer screen, a bone-chilling scene suddenly became visible.

The bodies of two children were lying on the floor with blood flowing from their corpses, dying the entire carpet red.

The little children had been shot by someone in cold blood.

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{A big shout-out to my new pátron 'Muscab Mumin' for joining the Divine Eminence tier on my Pátreon. Thanks for the support. ≧◠ᴥ◠≦}

{A big shout-out to my new pátron 'Christian Demers' for joining the Celestial Emperor tier on my Pátreon. Thanks for the support. ≧◠ᴥ◠≦}

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