Chapter 12: Master Bruce

To read up to 20 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

---------------

At the 'Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger' dojo, Dragon and Tiger were eating while talking together.

Tiger said "Edward has been working for six months under you, and he has already achieved much more than you or I could ever hope. Although he isn't a Chi Master yet, you know he isn't far."

Dragon was frowning as he replied "But we aren't going against any hilly billy, we are talking about R'as Al Ghul, and his League of Assassins, and probably Sandra's League of Shadows too."

Tiger shrugged and said "I can't go myself, and I don't think the two of you could take them all by yourself. Moreover, it would be great for the kid, what he needs isn't constant meditation, he needs action. Maybe the danger would even allow him to become a Chi Master."

Dragon continued frowning, but said nothing, thinking.

A while later, Edward opened the dojo's door, and saw Tiger training, as he always did, and Dragon, shockingly not meditating.

As he was about to say something funny, Dragon asked with a rather grave tone "Are you available this week-end?"

Edward tilted his head and said "Well, I am jobless and I am still waiting for the WHO to validate my anti serum so yeah, pretty much."

Dragon sighed, a rare sight, and said "What do you say about fighting a quasi immortal assassin, his insane daughter and a whole league of deadly assassins?"

Edward grinned and replied "That sounds fun." Dragon rolled his eyes and said "I guessed as much. We leave Friday, for Gotham."

And like that, the two took a plane to Gotham. Edward didn't have much problems on his end, as he already told his master he didn't do much of his days other than spending time with Diana, working on his own serum and training Peter.

However, Diana had a job and Peter had school, so he still spent most of his time on working on his serum, and he was starting to think he needed a break, so this came at the right time. Even his training intensity lessened because he had already learned the martial arts Dragon and Tiger wanted him to learn, and his Internal Strength training was going extremely well as he already knew how to use 100% of his strength.

For now, the only thing left for him was to cultivate his Chi, but this was something he could do by himself every night.

So all he had to do was to tell Diana he would be leaving for the week-end, and she was surprisingly happy he gave himself a break. Well, she wasn't that happy about him fighting immortal monsters and deadly assassins, but she let him go without much fuss, although she was worried about him, she trusted him, and if he was confidant of going on his own, then she wouldn't insult his trust by trying to follow him, that would just show a lack of trust on her part.

And so on that Friday, Edward took a place to Gotham with Dragon. As they entered the plane and sat down, Edward saw Dragon's face looked tense, and with a teasing voice he asked "Are you scared of planes?"

Dragon sent him a nasty look and said "Shut up, will you."

Edward grinned at his threatening glare though and said "So the mighty dragon is scared of flying. Oh, I'm never going to drop this."

Dragon sighed way too much to his own taste in Edward's company, and it once again happened as he decided to ignore the cheeky brat.

The fly was smooth sailing, or rather flying, and as they walked out of the airport they saw an expensive looking Rolls Royce, with a window open and revealing a handsome and refined man. Many people were looking at him and the car, as he if was some celebrity, which he actually was.

This was Bruce Wayne, Gotham's billionaire and thought to be dead until recently when he resurfaced.

Dragon and Edward walked to the car, put their stuff in the trunk and in the seats behind, next to Bruce.

Bruce looked at the chauffeur and said "Back to the mansion, Alfred." Alfred, the butler/chauffeur, replied "Right away Master Bruce."

Then, Bruce looked at Dragon with a smile and said "It has been a while." Dragon nodded and said "It has. This is my new student, Edward Bell."

Edward and Bruce shook hands, and Bruce said "I heard a lot about you recently, Mr Bell." Edward smiled and replied "So have I. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Dragon said "Now that everyone knows each other, let's talk about our plan."

Bruce smiled and said "Won't you let me properly entertain you before talking about a plan? You haven't changed."

Dragon snorted and replied "Don't take me for a fool, you probably already prepared plan A through Z. But you don't know about Edward's prowess, so you may have to adjust your plans."

Bruce pushed on a nearby button, opening a small compartment, out of which he took out a glass of champaign and said "From what I know, he has been training under you for six months, so I can induce his fighting prowess from that."

Looking a little smug, he took a sip off his champaign, but it was Dragon who smiled smugly as he said "He is a step away from becoming a Chi Master, and has already mastered Internal Strength."

Bruce, who was in the middle of drinking, suddenly coughed as he asked "What?"

Dragon grinned and said "The kid is the most talented I ever saw, even better than you. I think he may actually have a chance at surpassing the limit."

Bruce looked at Edward once again, and after a moment said "That may indeed bring a change to my plans."

The group didn't take long to arrive at the mansion, and as Alfred insisted on bringing their belongings to their rooms himself, Bruce led them to a secret cave underneath his mansion.

As they walked down the stairs, Bruce asked Dragon "Are you absolutely sure he can be trusted?" Edward didn't take any offence at the mistrust, they didn't know each other after all, but Dragon replied "Don't worry, he is most certainly going to make fun of you, but he won't tell your secret to anyone. He has a secret identity himself."

Bruce tilted his head, and after a moment he asked "Serenity?" Edward smiled, and said "Dragon told me you were a good detective."

Bruce smiled back and said "Your fighting style gave you away. I could see Dragon's moves in Serenity, but I didn't think it was you right away because I underestimated your progress in those six months."

Edward nodded, if Dragon trusted Bruce and came here to help him out of his own volition, then he didn't mind having the man know his secret identity. He wasn't protecting his identity only to protect himself, he had many closed ones he didn't want to be hurt.

He wasn't so worried about Diana, he doubted there were many things or people capable of fighting her, but he worried about his parents or his friends.

The three quickly arrived in a large cavern, which lit up as they arrived. It was filled with gadgets of all kinds and expensive looking technology. Edward could also see prototypes of different things, one of which was a car.

Bruce led them in front of a large monitor, and said "We are largely outnumbered, and each of our opponents is deadly. Going straight in isn't going to do it."

He clapped his hands and the monitor lit up, showing a map of Gotham. A red dot was blinking somewhere on the map. Bruce said "This is where we will be fighting. It is a disaffected area, so we won't have to worry about any casualties over there. Moreover, the complex terrain will force them to split up. It is great to set traps too."

Dragon crossed his arms and said "Just tell me who to beat, and where." Bruce smiled wryly and took out a laser out of his pocket and said as he showed a particular building "I thought you would say that. I didn't set any trap in that building, so you can just go there and beat up whoever enters."

Dragon nodded, satisfied, while Edward rolled his eyes. Dragon was not dumb, he was actually very intelligent when it came to fighting. Speaking wasn't one of his best traits though.

Bruce looked at Edward, and asked "You and I will take the rest of the buildings, we will be able to shift between them to split them up, and take care of them by groups with the traps. However, the traps are as dangerous to you as they are to them, so only move in the areas where you memorized the traps. How many can you learn until tomorrow?"

Edward looked at the map, and asked "How many are there in every building?" Bruce replied "Ten to twenty."

Edward thought about it for a moment, and eventually said "All of them. Should we go there?" Bruce shook his head and typed something into a nearby computer as the map disappeared, and a building appeared, it's walls becoming transparent. It was an astonishing 3d model.

Edward could see many red spots, and Bruce confirmed his thoughts as he said "All the red spots are traps. You can learn from here the location and function of all the traps."

Edward nodded, and Dragon said "Well, have fun with that, I'm going back up there to eat something."

The two ignored him though as Edward was already focused on learning the traps, while Bruce was doing something else on a computer.

Putting his full concentration on the task at hand, Edward didn't even feel the hours pass as he memorized everything that needed to be memorized. Chi somewhat strengthened his memory, but the improvement was barely noticeable. Instead, it was his natural learning ability that made it easy for him.

After an unknown amount of time, Edward tried to slide his hand across the monitor to get to the next building, but stopped immediately as he instantly recognized this as the 7th building.

Edward sent a look at the nearby Bruce, who smirked and said "That was the last one. I just wanted to check whether you really memorized them all."

Edward breathed out lightly and said "I have learned the position of the traps. Does the assassins have a particular uniform? And do you? I don't want to mix you up during my fighting."

Bruce nodded and soon after the model of a man garbed in black from head to toe. It looked like the classical ninja.

Then, the model was replaced by another, this time although it was all black, it wasn't clothing anything, but an armor, with two pointy ears on the helmet and the symbol of a bat on the chest.

Edward said "I thought Batman had super powers." Bruce nodded and said "That's the whole point of it, people mustn't think of Batman as a man, but as an idea, as something to fear. Hence the bat."

Edward nodded, and added "I thought you just loved cosplay." Bruce snorted and said "Maybe I do. But enough about me, let's talk about you. Why did you come here?"

Edward sat down on another chair, and shrugged lightly as he replied "I would like to say it was my heroic spirit that brought me here, but that would be a lie. I came here for myself."

Bruce raised an eyebrow and said "This isn't something to be ashamed of. No matter what is the intention behind it, helping people will always remain a good deed, and I am thankful of your help."

Edward smiled "Then I guess everyone is satisfied. I'm glad I met you, Bruce." Bruce smiled back and replied "Same, Edward."