285 Brother Eye #285

Louisiana

Belle Reve

"Hello, Slade..." Ras Al-Ghul said, raising his head upon hearing someone clearing their throat outside his sell and noting a familiar face. "Did my people send you to free me...?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The Incompetent fools... I suppose it doesn't matter. Hurry up and kill me so they can resurrect me," He concluded with a frown.

"I'm afraid that's not the case..." Deathstroke calmly replied. "Someone leaked the whereabouts of your remaining underlings," He added as he approached the cell.

"Damn that boy... In that case, free me, and let's get out of here. I'll compensate you with riches or longevity, whichever you wish..." The demon head said through gritted teeth as he realized the width of his current predicament.

"Don't make promises you can't fulfill... the last Lazarus Pit ceased to exist exactly an hour ago," Deathstroke replied as he took another step toward the cell's bars. "Besides, I didn't come here to stroll. I'm in the middle of a job," He blankly added as he retrieved a pistol from his pocket.

"I'm sorry, old friend. I'm sure you understand..." The mercenary said as he raised the gun, aiming at Ras Al-Ghul's head. "It's just business," He concluded as he pulled the trigger and watched him fall to the ground with a bloody hole in his forehead.

...

Gotham

The Batcave

"May I ask what you're still doing here, Master Bruce...?" Alfred asked with a fed-up expression, standing behind his master as the latter worked on the supercomputer. "I thought you said your work was over..." He added with a sigh.

"It is over, Alfred," Bruce replied as he gestured to a hologram of an eye-shaped satellite orbiting Earth. "I only need to activate it and remove the inhibitions before it goes online," He added, his expression turning grave.

"However, I need to test the countermeasure for Brother should it go rogue or fall into the wrong hands..." He concluded, going quiet as he resumed working.

"Well, then maybe just don't go through with it..." The butler said with an annoyed expression as he nagged his master. "No possibly homicidal artificial intelligence, no countermeasure, no problem, as the youngsters say these days," He mockingly concluded.

"Very funny, Alfred," Bruce blankly said as he turned to the butler with a deadpan expression. "I already told you Brother Eye was safe... I'm only being cautious for good measure," He went on as he stopped typing on the supercomputer and pressed enter.

"However, if the countermeasure tests fail, I will do as you ask and abandon the project..." He concluded, watching as a simplified version of Brother Eye came to life and went to work immediately, attacking a specific database.

...

Gray's hideout

"Well, that was fast..." I said with a chuckle as I opened my phone and saw a message from Deathstroke.

"The job is done. No colatteral."

'It's nice to work with someone dependable for a change...' I mused, shaking my head.

I had already contacted him before going out to destroy the Lazarus Pits, but I honestly didn't think he'd finish the job merely an hour after I informed him the damned things were gone.

In any case, locating and destroying every Lazarus pit on Earth didn't take long, thanks to the Starheart ring's scans and the Mother Box's precise teleportation function.

I also met up with Katherine spencer before returning to my hideout, and what do you know, she agreed to join in on my plans now that I'd proven they were feasible.

With the legal side taken care of, I only needed someone to carry the load and run the day-to-day operations, and I'll be ready to laze around and work on my toys in the hideout 24/7.

Still, it seems fate had other plans.

"What the fuck...?" I cursed, immediately jumping off my couch as alarms went off inside the hideout. I immediately activated my personal computer ability and logged into the system to see what was happening.

"Give me a fucking break... I just got back..." I muttered with a sigh as I realized someone was trying to hack into my private network and plunder my database.

What's more, the bastard seemed to know what he was doing, judging by how quickly he was dismantling security measures one after the other like they were nothing.

"Whoever's behind this better be ready to face my wrath..." I remarked to no one in particular, sighing in annoyance as I began fighting back the cyber invasion.

...

One hour later

I couldn't help but grit my teeth in frustration, feeling the urge to punch something or someone as I removed the last malware in my network and secured the database.

I managed to protect myself and my hideout, but whoever was behind the sudden attack wasn't playing around, forcing me to use every bit of my programming and computer knowledge to ward them off.

Heck, it almost felt like the one behind the attacks wasn't even human considering how quickly and effectively they adapted to the security measure I created and installed to protect my network.

In fact, I doubted that even people like Anarky and Barbara Gordon could pull something like this. Don't get me wrong, those two were some of the best hackers and programmers on the planet, but they were regular human beings.

There was no way they could code or respond as quickly as the attacker did to my every move. A regular human couldn't react so fast. It was downright impossible, to put it mildly.

"Whatever..." I said as I took a deep breath to calm myself. "I'll track down whoever is responsible and make them pay for wasting my time..." I added as I reactivated my personal computer power and went to work, tracking down the attacker.

...

The Batcave

"Well, it appears that the countermeasure is effective..." Bruce said with a smile as he turned to his butler. "Are you happy now, Alfred?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hardly, sir," Alfred blankly replied, clearly unamused by his Brcue's smug antics. "Nothing short of scrapping this project of yours would make me happy, He added with a scoff.

"But we can't get everything we want in life, evidently," The butler added with a tired sigh. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I'd rather not deal with an angry metahuman on your behalf," He continued as he turned to leave without waiting for a reply.

"Nor the mess said angry metahuman would leave," He concluded, and as if on cue, the Batcave began shaking as alarms went off, causing the butler to walk away even faster.

"What the fuck, Bruce...?" Said Grayson, clearly pissed off as he flew into the Batcave after destroying every single countermeasure Bruce had installed to protect it.

"Calm down," Bruce replied. "It was a test, and it worked," He added as he watched Grayson land before him, clearly unimpressed by his explanation and reasoning.

"What are you talking about now? You better have a good reason for what you did," Grayson questioned.

"I do, if you'd only let me explain," Bruce calmly replied. "The black card Selina gave you, do you still have it...?" Bruce added, much to the young man's confusion, as he nodded and retrieved it from his storage space.

"I'll make an educated guess and assume you haven't gone through its contents yet..." Bruce remarked, to which Grayson nodded again. "Now would be a good time, then," He added, gesturing towards his supercomputer.

Though Selina claimed it was a gift from Batman in exchange for saving Barbara's life, Grayson threw it into his storage space, then proceeded to ignore its existence. After all, he was many things, but trustful was not one of them.

Still, the young man hesitated for a second before sighing and inserting the black card into the supercomputer as Bruce stepped aside and moved out of his way.

"This is..." Grayson remarked, his eyes widening in astonishment as he sat and viewed the encrypted schematics and the final message recorded within the black card, especially for him.

"After Brimstone, I've realized my limitations as people, strangers, and loved ones suffered for my mistakes..." Bruce said as he stood behind Grayson while the latter deciphered the black card's data.

"I knew them that I needed to step aside and take responsibility for my actions..." Bruce went on, watching as Grayson's astonishment grew more visible at what he found.

"But more than anything, I wanted to create a legacy, a boon that could benefit humanity more than I ever could; Brother Eye..." Bruce calmly explained. "However, such power was too tempting. I couldn't trust anyone with it, not even myself," He added.

"I thought of Maxwell Lord but quickly realized he wasn't who he seemed after some deliberation..." Bruce said, his tone somber. "Ultimately, I decided that no indivisual should control such a power, but someone should be able to keep it in check, nonetheless," He calmly continued.

"And that's where you come in..."