9 Chapter 9: Wayne Murder Case - The Arrest

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"People's lives don't end when they die, it ends when they lose faith."

– Itachi Uchiha (Naruto)

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"God, I never thought that writing programs would be this taxing. I think this is my 10000th line of code this week." Bruce complained to no one as he continued to type away with his tired and swollen fingers he yawned due to the lack of sleep for the last few nights, a result of Selina making him into her personal hug teddy every night for some reason, not that he was complaining about it.

Anyways, to construct a new AI for him, he not only had to write code for the primary matrix of the AI but also write different separate additional programs to make sure that the current programming languages and tech of this time would be able to handle and support his code for the required AI. He didn't want to spend a month writing codes for an AI, only for it to crash later because some programming language simply wasn't capable enough to process his complex code.

"But at least I don't have to make blueprints for this. That's a plus." Bruce's smugly thought. His biggest headache wasn't writing code or gaining knowledge or even using his 'gift' to understand how stuff works. No, his fear was making blueprints. That was the one thing that he hated in this life due to the fact of how time-consuming it truly was.

He remembered that he had to spend an entire day making blueprints when he was first trying to make his bat-tool. To most scientists or engineers, that would be considered an extremely small time to devote to making a blueprint of such a complex tech but to him, it was an eternity since he had come up with the idea and understood the entire process of how the bat-tool was gonna work within just one hour but took a day for drawing up its blueprint.

Even following the blueprint and actually constructing the bat-tool was a much more enjoyable process where he at least wasn't bored out of his mind.

"And done. That marks the end of all the additional programs required to run the primary code. Now I just have to write the main code for the AI and start the training process." It would be a little more difficult and time-consuming for the AI to grow and mature due to the absence of enough simulation and training data since this was still the nineties and the internet still hadn't developed to that extent yet but the AI would succeed nonetheless with it becoming smarter and smarter with the steady development of technology and spread of internet since that was the primary place where all advanced AI collect data from to learn.

Bruce was at first thinking about making an assistant-type AI like Jarvis but he already had Alfred. So instead, he decided to go for something more complex. He would never in his full sanity ever try to make a militaristic AI like Skynet but he could make a supportive analytical one like Cortana, one which could update and evolve its responsibilities with time while strictly sticking to its core programming and commands of being loyal to him and always obeying him.

"Yes. Soon I'll develop my own AI and then the entire internet will be my playground. Unlimited nudes forever, hahaha, muahahaha HAHA HAHAHA."

"You are laughing like one of those crazy scientists on tv, you know?" Selina said from behind him while chewing on a piece of gum.

"Da FCK?" Bruce almost had a heart attack as he was surprised by Selina's sudden voice interrupting him. Selina could be really sneaky when she wanted to be. She was the literal living incarnation of what a talented female cat burglar should be like in a fictional universe filled with absurdly skilled and powerful people.

"Oh Sorry, did I surprise you?" Selina said with an extremely smug smile that said 'Got you again'.

"Kitty, you took over my bed, I didn't say anything. You made me your hug buddy every night, I didn't say anything (In fact, he even enjoyed it somewhat). But this cave is my personal man cave and you don't come into a man cave without permission. That's the one thing you never do. And also, how did you even find it? I was sure that I hid all its entrances on the estate ground very well." Bruce said with an annoyed expression.

"Oh, it was quite easy. I just followed my gut. I even was waiting for the past ten minutes to see if you noticed me. I was even thinking of not surprising you this time and just announcing my presence but when I saw you do what I can say was the most epic crazy scientist laugh I have ever heard, I could no longer control myself, I had to do that." Selina justified herself.

"You waited for ten minutes just to do that? Wow, that's some level of dedication." Bruce could not help but grow amazed.

"Yeah, I also liked watching you work all focused and determined. Anyways, I was here because Alfred was calling you. He seemed to be really serious and worried, so I think you should go and see what it's about.

"Let's go then. I don't think we should keep a worried Alfred waiting." Bruce said with a smile as he shut down all the screens in front of him and turned off the cave's main power supply, an additional arc reactor that he had made last time when he was working on his bat-tool.

As both of them reached the living room of the manor, they saw Alfred talking with someone on the telephone. Seeing the two of them, Alfred quickly bade goodbye to the person on the other side and put down the receiver.

"Young Master, I have very good news and a little bad news for you," Alfred said as he seriously looked at Bruce standing with a confused face.

"I am listening," Bruce replied.

"I just talked to Detective Jim Gordon from GCPD, the same guy who took your statement last week. He and his partner seem to have caught the guy who murdered your par..., whose name you remembered, Joe Chill. But since you couldn't provide a physical description of the guy in your statement, they do not have conclusive evidence to detain him for long. So they would have to let the guy go... unless you can go the station and successfully identify the person yourself." Alfred said, a little angry at himself for even suggesting Bruce go through that all again, to stand in front of the same guy who had killed his parents.

To say Bruce was worried about this was an understatement. He didn't know who had murdered the original Bruce's parents in this universe. When he told the name 'Joe Chill' to Jim, it was purely based on a guess from what he knew from the comics about the death of the Wayne couple. It was very much possible that in this reality, the guy didn't even have anything to do with his parents' murder in which case he would be wrongfully accusing an innocent man as a vile murderer.

'God, why did I even say that at that time? I really should have thought this through." Bruce said. He had said it in front of everyone to seem like the original Bruce Wayne genuinely suffering from amnesia. He had used that name as a bone throwing it to the dogs so that they don't follow him. It was all only a way for him to make his story sound more genuine so that nobody would doubt him or question him about the incident too much.

Now even if he stood solid in his previous statement of remembering that name, he wouldn't be able to identify the person since he had never seen him. Even if he was the murderer of the original Wayne family, he would still not be able to recognize him since he didn't inherit the previous Bruce Wayne's full memories. Also, there was always a chance of the person coming back to finish the job and tie loose ends if he were the murderer and if Bruce failed to identify him.

As Bruce was thinking about all this, he found a small hand slowly sliding in between his hands, trying to comfort him and remind him of her encouraging presence.

Looking at both the empathetic eyes of Selina and Alfred looking at him, practically telling him to do whatever he wanted and that they would always support him no matter which option he chose, he ultimately made his choice.

"Call Detective Gordon Alfred. Tell him Bruce Wayne is coming to the station. If that person did kill... my parents, I would make sure that he gets his due. That's the least I can do for the Wayne family. I at least owe them that." Bruce said as he clutched the bat-tool on his belt buckle determined to just 'wing it' and worry about complex stuff later when they pop up.

He didn't care if he was changing the plot or breaking the character. He had sworn to himself that he was gonna write his own story and that was exactly what he was gonna do. He was gonna write his own fate, even if he had to shoot an endless and steal his book for it.

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