C3: The Secret

Time: 1:00 A.M. 

I stood before the grand mirror in my bedroom, putting on a long-sleeved tight-fit black t-shirt. 

Even though it was past midnight, I wasn't feeling too tired. 

I was never a good sleeper. I liked staying up at night, thinking. I only ever wanted 2 or 3 hours of sleep a day. 

The door to my room was open. 

Alfred began to play the Toccata and Fugue downstairs. The sounds of the organ echoed up the stairs and across the hallways into my room. 

Smiling, I opened my closet and stared at the thing inside. 

A dark mask in the shape of a bat. 

"Tonight is the night," I told myself again, grasping the mask. 

I closed the closet door and stared at the mirror. Soon, I would no longer be Bruce Wayne. 

Tonight, I was going to change into a different being. 

I put on the mask over my face. 

Alfred's fingers danced across the organ, the music booming in the Wayne Manor at 1 o'clock past midnight. 

"Now… I'm the face of vengeance." 

I switched off the lamplight beside my bed. In the darkness, I stared at myself from the mirror with only the guidance of the moonlight falling into my room through the drapes. 

A silhouette of a bat was what I saw in the mirror. Soon, this will be the face that everyone in Gotham will see once they've committed crimes. 

…

I stepped down the stairs in a rush with a bag filled with gadgets hung around my back. 

Alfred's piece was almost over. Yet, he did not pause to say goodbye. 

He never left anything incomplete. 

I stepped toward my fireplace and stood beside the grand picture of my parents hanging on the wall. I pressed the button underneath the photo frame of my parents and it slid open, revealing a staircase leading into a darker place underneath my Manor. 

This was my secret cave. 

"The day is here, Mother. Father. I will bring justice to every wrongdoer in this goddamn city." 

I stepped down the staircase into the massive dark cave. 

It was time. Time to begin my dream work. 

…

I placed the heavy bag hung around my neck into the back of my Wrangler. 

Then, climbing inside, I started the vehicle. 

I gazed up the staircase that led to the entrance to the cave. Alfred was now standing there, his silhouette drawn in the doorway. 

I placed a finger on my AirPod, connecting Alfred's call. 

"Good luck sir," his voice came through to me. 

"Thank you, Alfred. Now, if you please let down the waterfall so I can move out into the city." 

"Of course." 

A platform that led to the waterfall on the other side of the cave rock lit up with lights. 

The curtain of water that hid the cave suddenly closed. 

I sped my Wrangler out through the waterfall and into a field of grass. 

With the cold breeze of the night in my hair, I was heading off into Gotham City. 

The night was a dark place. It could hide me. It could lend me a hand to fight injustice in the city. 

It would pave the path to unleash my rage on the filth in Gotham City. 

However... 

I wasn't born yet.

It wasn't this moment that created me…

The Batman. 

I hadn't experienced the true face of vengeance yet. I knew from the day I figured out I could attain superstrength from this serum that I would use this to fight the criminals that crawled on every inch of Gotham City.

But — I was not Batman yet.

This was indeed the night that changed me. 

Once the darkness eats you alive, there's no going back. You become part of that darkness. You become one with the darkness. 

You cannot simply save the filth. You must remove it once and for all.

…

While I drove past the fields toward the city in the distance, I felt my skin heating up. 

Was it the suit? The breeze was cold. Yet, it wasn't cold enough to stop my body from sweating. Why? 

Even in the cold shower I had an hour ago, the water hardly felt cold. 

The cool water that came through the shower head felt more like lukewarm water. 

'I guess this warmth is a side effect from the serum?' I pondered. 

Of course, the serum could have one or two side effects. Yet, none of our experiments showed life-threatening effects. 

So, my worries faded away. 

Water droplets were now gradually covering my windshield. I could feel drops falling on my face through the open window of my Wrangler. 

"Ahaha… Yeah? What's he saying now?"

"Mmm… yes yes yes! Please, Harry! Harder!" 

"Why? Why do you like the chains so much?" 

As I approached the city from a distance, voices suddenly filled my head. How was I able to hear these voices? 

Then, the thought struck me. 

"Increased hearing. Increased body warmth… increased strength," I whispered to myself.

I figured that these were all effects from the serum. Yet, each one of them was useful to me. 

The world was on my side. 

"Ahem, what was that Master Bruce?" Alfred spoke through my AirPod. 

"Nothing, Alfred. I am just realizing that this serum may be capable of helping me in more than one way." 

"Ah. Continue then." 

Before I knew it, I had entered the gruesome, dark, and filthy streets of Gotham City.